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Lot Essay
This evocative canvas is one of a sequence of views of the Punta della Dogana that Guardi produced over a number years. The Dogana da Mar, or Custom’s House, was built between 1677 and 1682 to the design of Giuseppe Benoni; it was surmounted by Bernardo Falcone’s statue of Fame, which sits on top of a golden sphere, marking the entrance to the Grand Canal. To the right as we look is the Seminario Patriarcale, which sits next to the eastern flank of Baldassare Longhena’s celebrated church, the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. To the left, across the Giudecca and between the boats, the great church of the Redentore can just be seen on the horizon, built to the design of Andrea Palladio and consecrated in 1592.
The view of the Dogana must have held a strong appeal to those who visited the Republic, and it was one that Guardi returned to on many occasions; he experimented with small variations of perspective, such that each individual treatment summoned its own impression of this remarkably busy and transient part of Venice. This series of vedute fall into two topographical groups: those that include the Salute, such as the present lot, of which Antonio Morassi lists fourteen variants (A. Morassi, Guardi i dipinti, Venice, 1984, I, nos. 472-495); and those that do not, of which seventeen are recorded (ibid., nos. 497-513). In most of these the portico of the Dogana is seen from the north side of the Grand Canal from a position slightly to the left, allowing the spectator to see through the portico itself. At the other extreme, and from a point yet further east approaching the Molo, are the views in which the portico is seen from a more frontal perspective, a good example of which is the work in the National Gallery, London. Whilst the chronology of this group is hard to establish, the majority, like the present canvas, belong to his maturity, the 1770s and ‘80s. This work, with its tones of pink and silver and characteristically spontaneous brushwork, shows Guardi’s unique talent in describing the shimmering and elusive atmosphere of the lagoon city.
The view of the Dogana must have held a strong appeal to those who visited the Republic, and it was one that Guardi returned to on many occasions; he experimented with small variations of perspective, such that each individual treatment summoned its own impression of this remarkably busy and transient part of Venice. This series of vedute fall into two topographical groups: those that include the Salute, such as the present lot, of which Antonio Morassi lists fourteen variants (A. Morassi, Guardi i dipinti, Venice, 1984, I, nos. 472-495); and those that do not, of which seventeen are recorded (ibid., nos. 497-513). In most of these the portico of the Dogana is seen from the north side of the Grand Canal from a position slightly to the left, allowing the spectator to see through the portico itself. At the other extreme, and from a point yet further east approaching the Molo, are the views in which the portico is seen from a more frontal perspective, a good example of which is the work in the National Gallery, London. Whilst the chronology of this group is hard to establish, the majority, like the present canvas, belong to his maturity, the 1770s and ‘80s. This work, with its tones of pink and silver and characteristically spontaneous brushwork, shows Guardi’s unique talent in describing the shimmering and elusive atmosphere of the lagoon city.