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Lot Essay
Antonio Guardi seems to have enjoyed a closer relationship with Schulenburg than any other artist, as, in addition to the individual payments he received for specific commissions, the painter--uniquely--was paid a monthly retainer by the marshal. Schulenburg's account books survive for the period May 1730 to 13 April 1745 and these list the regular payments of this salary, which was set at 1 zecchino 5 lire per month until March 1736; it was then raised to 1 zecchino 10 lire and subsequently in May of the same year to 2 zecchini 16 lire, presumably on account of the amount of work done. Guardi was employed principally as a copyist. His copies of Veronese's Marriage Feast at Cana now in the Louvre and Madonna and Child with Saints in the Accademia and of a Bassano Nativity, presumably that in San Giorgio Maggiore, are all lost, but many have survived, including those of Titian's Accademia Saint John the Baptist (Dublin), Veronese's Uffizi Holy Family with Saint Catherine and the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Seattle) and of the Tintoretto School Fortitude and Temperance in the church of the Madonna dell'Orto (sold at Christie's, New York, 11 January 1991, lots 47 and 48; see Pedrocco and Montecuccoli degli Erri, op. cit., nos. 34-6 and 40, colour pls. X and XI, figs. 49-53 and 57). He was also requested to execute copies of works by contemporaries, including Sebastiano Ricci, Piazzetta and Rosalba Carriera.
Schulenburg liked portraits, whether of himself to send to other people or of members of the royal houses of Europe to display on his own walls to show his powerful connections. Guardi produced for him at least forty, of which twenty were of the marshal himself (see, for instance, Pedrocco and Montecuccoli degli Erri, op. cit., no. 41, colour pl. XII, fig. 58). Most of the others were by necessity based on works by other artists, such as that of the Empress Elisabeth Christine of Austria after Liotard sold in these Rooms, 11 December 1992, lot 18. That picture formed part of a group of 'cinque ritratti della Casa d'Austria' and the present painting is listed in the inventories with five other portraits of members of the royal house of Spain, paid for on 2 October 1745, 5 December 1745 and 23 January 1746 (Morassi's statement, loc. cit., 1960, that the six portraits were paid for on 30 June 1741 was due to a misinterpretation of the documents, as Sir Denis Mahon was the first to observe, loc. cit.). Four others of these survive (ibid., nos. 51 and 53-5, figs. 68 and 70-2): the present sitter's husband King Philip V of Spain, their son King Ferdinand VI of Spain (sold in these Rooms, 22 April 1994, lot 46), his younger brother Philip, Duke of Parma, and the latter's wife Louise Isabelle of France.
The present picture and its pendant follow the compositions of portraits by Louis-Michel van Loo, of which the prototypes are in the Palacio Real, Madrid, and replicas are at Versailles (exhibited Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux Arts, Paris, Grand Palais, and Madrid, Museo del Prado, El Arte europeo en la Corte de España durante el siglo XVII, 1979-80, p. 160, nos. 90-1, both illustrated). Schulenburg's account books record a payment of 8 zecchini on 21 February 1731 'contati al Pittor francese [Jean Hubert] per li due Ritratti del Re e la Regina di Spagna' (see Binion, op. cit., pp. 110 and 136), which may have a relevance. However, as Morassi observed, 'la pittura lirica accademica dell'artista francese...è tutta pervasa di nuova vita nelle tele del Guardi, alle quali la scioltezza del tocco brillante, l'intensità del colorito, la pastosità della materia conferiscono un significato artistico ben diverso ed un livello qualitativo decisamente superiore'. The suggestion of Sir Denis Mahon (followed by Knox, loc. cit.) that the present work might be the work of Nicolò Guardi would seem unlikely given the circumstances of the commission, and is emphatically denied by Pedrocco (in Pedrocco and Montecuccoli degli Erri, loc. cit.).
Schulenburg liked portraits, whether of himself to send to other people or of members of the royal houses of Europe to display on his own walls to show his powerful connections. Guardi produced for him at least forty, of which twenty were of the marshal himself (see, for instance, Pedrocco and Montecuccoli degli Erri, op. cit., no. 41, colour pl. XII, fig. 58). Most of the others were by necessity based on works by other artists, such as that of the Empress Elisabeth Christine of Austria after Liotard sold in these Rooms, 11 December 1992, lot 18. That picture formed part of a group of 'cinque ritratti della Casa d'Austria' and the present painting is listed in the inventories with five other portraits of members of the royal house of Spain, paid for on 2 October 1745, 5 December 1745 and 23 January 1746 (Morassi's statement, loc. cit., 1960, that the six portraits were paid for on 30 June 1741 was due to a misinterpretation of the documents, as Sir Denis Mahon was the first to observe, loc. cit.). Four others of these survive (ibid., nos. 51 and 53-5, figs. 68 and 70-2): the present sitter's husband King Philip V of Spain, their son King Ferdinand VI of Spain (sold in these Rooms, 22 April 1994, lot 46), his younger brother Philip, Duke of Parma, and the latter's wife Louise Isabelle of France.
The present picture and its pendant follow the compositions of portraits by Louis-Michel van Loo, of which the prototypes are in the Palacio Real, Madrid, and replicas are at Versailles (exhibited Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux Arts, Paris, Grand Palais, and Madrid, Museo del Prado, El Arte europeo en la Corte de España durante el siglo XVII, 1979-80, p. 160, nos. 90-1, both illustrated). Schulenburg's account books record a payment of 8 zecchini on 21 February 1731 'contati al Pittor francese [Jean Hubert] per li due Ritratti del Re e la Regina di Spagna' (see Binion, op. cit., pp. 110 and 136), which may have a relevance. However, as Morassi observed, 'la pittura lirica accademica dell'artista francese...è tutta pervasa di nuova vita nelle tele del Guardi, alle quali la scioltezza del tocco brillante, l'intensità del colorito, la pastosità della materia conferiscono un significato artistico ben diverso ed un livello qualitativo decisamente superiore'. The suggestion of Sir Denis Mahon (followed by Knox, loc. cit.) that the present work might be the work of Nicolò Guardi would seem unlikely given the circumstances of the commission, and is emphatically denied by Pedrocco (in Pedrocco and Montecuccoli degli Erri, loc. cit.).