Francesco Guardi - PIAZZA SAN MARCO WITH THE BASILICA AND THE CAMPANILE

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Francesco Guardi
VENICE 1712 - 1793
VENICE, PIAZZA SAN MARCO WITH THE BASILICA AND THE CAMPANILE
oil on panel
25.4 by 42.8 cm.; 10 by 16 7/8 in.


The Basilica of Saint Mark and its piazza have always captured the imagination of visitors to the Serenissima and Grand Tourists, for whom many of Guardi's vedute were destined, were no different. The scene depicts the daily bustle of the city but also allows Guardi to explore some of his characteristic themes: the contrast between the stillness of the magnificent buildings and the sharply-painted animated figures which inhabit them; the play of light between the warmly-lit Procuratie Nuove to the right and the shadow hanging over the left of the composition; the small flashes of colour, seen here in the blues and reds, which pierce the composition and break up the continuity of the windows of the Procuratie.

Though several autograph versions of this view are known, few are on panel and match the quality of the present painting. A similar work, also on panel and of comparable dimensions (23.8 by 33 cm.), in which the figures of the father and son holding hands in the foreground recur, was sold in these Rooms, 6 July 2011, lot 72, for £620,000. Rossi Bortolatto praises the high quality of the work and Morassi describes the painting as of "eccellente levatura" (for both see Literature), dating it to the eighth decade of the 18th century. Whilst Succi (see Literature) initially rejected the attribution to Francesco in favour of Giacomo Guardi, after examining the painting in the original he now believes it to be by Francesco, datable to 1785.1



1. Dr Succi's written report dated 30 September 2009 accompanies the lot.

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