Bellotto & Guardi by cygnet

Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy & a masterpiece by Francesco Guardi

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bernardo bellotto and his circle in italy & a masterpiece by francesco guardi

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Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy & a masterpiece by Francesco Guardi charles beddington

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Catalogue by Charles Beddington 2014

acknowledgements Many people have contributed to this exhibition. I would particularly like to thank Tom Ash, Tom Caley, David Chesterman, Leopold Deliss, Clare Dewey, Matthew Hollow, Simon Howell, Derek Johns, Flavia Lefebvre, Fabio Mazzocchini, Angela Nevill, Simon Rendall and Martin Wyld.

charles beddington limited 16 savile row, london w1s 3pl tel + 44 (0)20 7439 4959 www.charlesbeddington.com

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Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy In Bernardo Bellotto were combined an exceptional natural talent and all the fortunes of birth that an aspiring view painter could hope for. Born on 20 May 1722, he was the son of Fiorenza Domenica Canal, the eldest of the three sisters of Canaletto. His bachelor uncle, by the early 1730s at the height of his powers and in constant demand for Venetian views, took him under his wing and began his training when Bellotto was still in his early teens; Canaletto’s own first tentative ventures into the field of view painting had not been made until he was about twenty-three years old. Bellotto responded by demonstrating a quite remarkable precocity. A highly proficient drawing of The Grand Canal at the Entrance to the Canale di Santa Chiara, looking South-East along the Fondamenta di Santa Chiara is on the verso of two letters written by Bernardo and his elder brother Michiel from Venice to their father, and thus datable before June 1736 when Michiel left Venice.1 Bellotto was inscribed in the Venetian painters’ guild in 1738, when he was only sixteen years old. By then he must have already produced his earliest known paintings, a view of The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West, with Santa Maria della Salute,2 and a slightly more advanced pendant view of The Rialto Bridge from the North.3 Recorded by James Harris, m.p. (1709–1780), father of

the 1st Earl of Malmesbury, as by ‘Antonio Bellotti’ [the artist’s Christian name presumably mistaken for that of his uncle], and as ‘painted … at Venice, & imported at my Request by Mr. Wm Hayter of London March 1743’, they are the only Venetian views by Bellotto whose attribution is conﬁrmed by a contemporary document. The two paintings set the pattern for many of Bellotto’s early works. They are based on works by Canaletto which the young artist would have known not only from Antonio Visentini’s engravings, plates VI and VII of his Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetarium published in 1735 but also, no doubt, from the paintings themselves; those were among the relatively few earlier works by his uncle which had remained in Venice, having been retained by Canaletto’s patron and agent Joseph Smith in his house on the Grand Canal, the Palazzo MangilliValmarana.4 Characteristically, Bellotto’s versions are larger than the prototypes, and are more thickly painted. The colouration, predominantly in tones of beige and grey with prominent black lines, is already quite distinct from Canaletto’s, and the older artist’s sunshine has been replaced by more wintry light. The skies are applied largely in diagonal strokes descending to the left, a hallmark of Bellotto’s technique. Any urge to

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criticise the signs of youthful inexperience which are certainly apparent should be overcome by wonder at the confidence with which the painter reinterprets his famous uncle’s work in his own manner at such an early stage in his career. Bellotto went on to cover most of the major Canaletto compositions, whether by choice or to help fulfil commissions received by his uncle. Some 55 Venetian views are now known, and, it should be remembered, a not insignificant number of capricci also date from within Bellotto’s Venetian period, the painter’s industry resulting in a rapid honing of his skills. The presence of Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle, in Venice in November 1738 suggests that Bellotto’s work for Castle Howard, consisting of probably no fewer than 15 canvases, three of them of substantial size, began during 1739, if not before the end of 1738; while six were destroyed by fire in the house in 1940,5 four remain there,6 two are in the Louvre,7 and three have been identified fairly convincingly with paintings in American private collections.8 A drawing at Darmstadt of The Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, signed and dated 8 December 1740,9 would seem to indicate that the closely related painting in the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, should be dated to 1741.10 Perhaps his greatest interpretations of Canaletto compositions are The Entrance to the Grand Canal and Santa Maria della Salute from the Piazzetta,11 inspired by his uncle’s painting of twenty years earlier which he must have seen in Joseph Smith’s collection,12 and The Campo Santa Maria Formosa,13 both of about 1742. In the years around 1740 Canaletto’s workshop was busier than ever, including the Lyon Master (see cat. no. 4) as well as

Canaletto’s ageing father Bernardo Canal (1664–1744). Bellotto was already under particular ﬁnancial pressure, as by the time of his marriage on 5 November 1741 at the age of nineteen, he was housing and supporting his mother, who had been deserted by her husband, as well as his brother (and briefly pupil) Pietro (see cat. no. 7). By this time Bellotto was already revealing an ability to create his own compositions, most notably those of The Scuola di San Marco and the Rio dei Mendicanti (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice),14 and Santa Maria dei Miracoli and the Apse of Santa Maria Nova (Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover),15 both of c.1741. The pendants showing The Arsenal and The Piazzetta, looking North in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa are similarly compositions which were never painted by Canaletto.16 Despite being characteristic Bellotto masterpieces of c.1743, they were in the collection of Bouchier Cleeve at Foot’s Cray Place, Kent, as the work of Canaletto before the collector’s death in 1760. Contemporaries certainly had diiculty diferentiating between the hands of the two painters, Pietro Guarienti writing in 1753 of Bellotto’s Venetian views that ‘un grande intendimento ricercasi in chi vuole distinguerle da quelle del Zio’.17 Apart from the very early pair bought by James Harris in 1743 referred to above, the only evidence of Bellotto selling work under his own name while in his uncle’s studio is a record in the accounts of Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, whose secretary purchased for him in November 1740 four views, ‘two of S. Marco and two of the Arsenal’ by ‘the nephew of Canaletto’.18 If this indeed refers to Bernardo – and Pietro Bellotti was only ﬁfteen years old at the time –

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the paltry sum paid, nine zecchini, tells its own story. No doubt the use of his uncle’s name brought higher dividends, and he is already referred to as ‘Bernardo Canaletto’ in Florentine documents of 1740.19 He, and his brother Pietro, were to continue to use their uncle’s name throughout their careers, resulting in confusion which has only been clariﬁed in recent decades.20 From 1740, Bellotto’s career in Venice was interrupted – and his repertoire augmented – by visits to other Italian cities; in 1740 to Florence (where he met Giuseppe Zocchi, see cat. nos. 5–6) and Lucca; to Rome probably in 1743; in 1744 to Milan, Gazzada and Vaprio d’Adda; in 1745 to Turin. All of these journeys resulted in important groups of views which presumably followed soon after the respective visits, thus helping to chart the fairly rapid development of the artist’s style. Two of the fruits of the Rome visit (for which see also cat. no. 1) are known to have been exhibited in Venice on 16 August 1743, one of them almost certainly the view of Santa Maria in Aracoeli and the Campidoglio (Petworth House, National Trust).21 The pair of large views of Turin which remain in the Galleria Sabauda there, painted when Bellotto was twenty-three years old, show a degree of sophistication which he possibly never surpassed.22 Also of supreme beauty are the views of Verona at Powis Castle (National Trust) and on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, which are in the very large format (more than 132 x 230 cm.) which was to become almost standard for the more important of the views he was to produce in Northern Europe.23

Bellotto should be considered one of the geniuses of European view painting for the work of his Venetian period alone. This came to an end with his departure for Dresden shortly after 5 April 1747, thus shortly after his twenty-fifth birthday, never to return. In fact his career had barely begun, as he was to enjoy more than three decades of highly productive employment in the great courts of Northern Europe, where he was to find in plentiful supply the wintry light which he had favoured from the outset. During his initial eleven years in Dresden (1747–58) Bellotto painted for the Elector, who was also King Frederick Augustus II of Poland, a series of 25 views in the large format, 14 of Dresden itself and 11 of Pirna, which is his crowning achievement. His prodigious output during this period also included a second series of 21 views on the same scale, 13 of Dresden and 8 of Pirna, for the Prime Minister, Count Heinrich Brühl, and five views of the fortress of Königstein. He was thus producing one painting of the large format – and these are real masterpieces – every twelve weeks, apart from other, lesser commitments. After the outbreak of the Seven Years War Bellotto moved to Vienna in 1759, Munich in 1761 and back to Dresden in 1762 before settling definitively in Warsaw in 1767. In 1770 Bellotto’s son and assistant Lorenzo (born 1742), by whom only one work signed as his work alone is known,24 predeceased him.25 A series of 26 views of Warsaw and the nearby palace of Wilanòw, most of which is in the ‘Canaletto’ Room of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, shows, even at this advanced stage in his career, Bellotto’s intensely poetic response to his new surroundings.26

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1 S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London, 1972, II, p. 19, no. 20, illustrated; M. Bleyl, Bernardo Bellotto genannt Canaletto: Zeichnungen aus dem Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 1981, p. 28, no. 18, illustrated. The drawing forms part of an important group of early drawings, many of which relate to surviving paintings (see cat. no. 2), which have an unbroken provenance from Bellotto’s descendants at Vilnius at the beginning of the nineteenth century and are now in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt. 2 It was sold by the 6th Earl of Malmesbury at Christie’s, London, 11 April 1986, lot 57, as ‘Attributed to Bernardo Bellotto’, and has since passed through the hands of Charles Beddington Ltd, Cocoon Art, and Robilant & Voena. B. A. Kowalczyk in the catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto e Bellotto: L’arte della veduta, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, 14 March–15 June 2008, no. 2. 3 D. Succi in the catalogue of the exhibition Bernardo Bellotto detto il Canaletto, Barchessa di Villa Morosini, Mirano, 1999, fig. 9 (colour). Sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 24 January 2008, lot 114. 4 Both are now in the Royal Collection (W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, 1962 (and subsequent editions, revised by J. G. Links), nos. 161 and 236). 5 For an old photograph showing five of these see Succi, op. cit., fig. 34. 6 For two of those see the catalogue of the exhibition Bernardo Bellotto and the Capitals of Europe, Museo Correr, Venice, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2001, nos. 3–4, and the catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto: Venezia e i suoi splendori, Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso, 2008–9, nos. 66–7. 7 Lyon Bequest. Succi, op. cit., figs. 46–7. 8 Succi, op. cit., figs. 41, 43 and 44. 9 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. 25. 10 Ibid., no. 24; Venice and Houston 2001, no. 7. 11 C. Beddington, catalogue of the exhibition Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals,

National Gallery, London, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2010–11, no. 43. 12 This is one of the rare instances in which the prototype is larger than Bellotto’s version. 13 Ibid., no. 44. 14 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. 23; Venice and Houston 2001, no. 5. 15 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. 105; Venice and Houston 2001, no. 6. 16 Beddington, op. cit., nos. 45-6. 17 P. A. Orlandi, Abecedario pittorico … corretto e … accresciuto da P. Guarienti, Venice, 1753. Guarienti clearly knew Bellotto well, as he stood as godfather to his second daughter in 1746. 18 A. Binion, La galleria scomparsa del maresciallo von der Schulenburg: una mecanante nella Venezia del Settecento, Milan, 1990, p. 173; A. Binion, ‘I Bellotto di Schulenburg’, in the catalogue of the exhibition Bernardo Bellotto: Verona e la città europee, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, 1990, p. 27. 19 B. A. Kowalczyk, ‘Bellotto and Zanetti in Florence’, The Burlington Magazine, CLIV, no. 1306, January 2012, pp. 28–9. 20 Bellotto was until recently still known as ‘Canaletto’ in Poland and Germanspeaking countries. 21 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. 77; Venice and Houston 2001, no. 20. 22 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., nos. 92–3; Venice and Houston 2001, nos. 33–4; for one see also Turin 2008, no. 64. 23 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., nos. 98 and 101; for the ﬁrst see also Venice and Houston 2001, no. 37. 24 A capriccio in the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass. (Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. 316). 25 Five of his other eight children had died in infancy. 26 The views of Warsaw were – famously – used in the reconstruction of the city after the Second World War.

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bernardo bellotto, called Canaletto (Venice 1722 – 1780 Warsaw)

The Piazza del Popolo, Rome Oil on canvas 24 ¼ x 37 7/8 in. (61.5 x 96.2 cm.) provenance: Charles T. D. Crews, d.l., j.p., f.s.a.(1839–1915), 41 Portman Square, London; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, London, 2 July 1915 [=2nd day], lot 142, as ‘B. Bellotto’ (70 guineas to Leggatt).1 With Leggatt Brothers, London. Sir Charles Hilton Seely, 2nd Bt. (1859–1926), 25 Belgrave Square, London; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, London, 22 June 1928, lot 155, as ‘B. Bellotto’ (720 guineas to Croal Thomson). With Barbizon House, London, 1929 (catalogue no. 14, illustrated, as Bernardo Bellotto), from whom purchased by the grandfather of the present owner. literature: W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, 1962 (and subsequent editions, revised by J. G. Links), I, pl. 73; II, no. 402, as ‘Attributed to Canaletto’. S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London, 1972, II, p. 476, no. Z 358, illustrated p. 468. E. Camesasca, L’opera completa del Bellotto, Milan, 1974, no. 31 c, illustrated (as a view of Piazza Navona). B. A. Kowalczyk, Il Bellotto italiano [Unpublished doctoral thesis for the Universita’ degli Studi di Venezia, 1996], no. 42, illustrated. C. Beddington, ‘Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy, Part I: Not Canaletto but Bellotto’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLVI, no. 1219, October 2004, p. 673.

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The Piazza del Popolo held a particular significance for most visitors to Rome as their first experience of the city, situated as it is directly inside the Porta del Popolo, at the end of the Via Flaminia, the main route to the city from the north. The view depicted by Bellotto is still clearly recognisable today, although the twin churches of Santa Maria di Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli, flanking the entrance to the Via del Corso, had not yet been augmented with campanili, and the square is shown before the extensive alterations made by Giuseppe Valadier between 1811 and 1824. Valadier set the obelisk of Seti I on a base with fountains in the form of lions at the corners, and removed the earlier fountain, which is now in Piazza Nicosia. His spectacular linking of the square with the Pincian Hill necessitated the destruction of the wall and gateway of the gardens of the Augustian fathers of Santa Maria del Popolo, shown here on the left. The towers of Santa Trinità dei Monti are shown beyond the Via del Babuino to the left of centre. The Piazza del Popolo had been one of the favourite subjects of Gaspar van Wittel, called Gaspare Vanvitelli (1652/3–1736), the father of the eighteenth century Italian school of view painting, who depicted it some seventeen times in oil or tempera.2 An engraving of 1678 follows a lost drawing by Vanvitelli which is one of his first known views,3 and a version in tempera is his earliest known dated work. Vanvitelli consistently adopted a high viewpoint slightly to the right of the central axis for his representations of the square, as did his successor as the great resident painter of Roman views, Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691–1765).4 Bellotto, however, in this, his only depic-

tion of it, adopts a viewpoint almost at street level, and a composition, in many ways more satisfactory, in which the obelisk balances the twin churches. This is borrowed from the earlier engraving by Giovanni Battista Falda (1643–1678).5 No depiction by Canaletto of the square is known; the surviving drawings from his only visit to Rome in 1719–20, five of which were used by Bellotto for paintings, are mostly of the ancient rather than the modern city.6 It is possible, however, that one existed, as one or more of the early variants of the composition may be attributable to Canaletto’s father (and Bellotto’s grandfather) Bernardo Canal (1664–1744), who often borrowed his son’s compositions; others are by Jacopo Fabris (1689– 1761), who left Italy for Northern Europe definitively in 1741.7 The critical history of the painting has much in common with that of the majority of Bellotto’s Italian views. While the great Canaletto scholar W. G. Constable often displayed a perspicacity in differentiating Bellotto’s paintings from those of his uncle in private notes,8 by the time he published his catalogue of Canaletto’s work in 1962 he had lost his nerve. Of this painting he wrote, inexplicably, ‘The attribution to Bellotto has little to be said for it. The treatment of the architecture and figures has some resemblance to that of Canaletto; but the painting is best regarded as by an imitator of his style, perhaps Roman’. The Polish scholar Stefan Kozakiewicz was interested primarily in Bellotto’s work in northern Europe, and his catalogue, published eight years later, shows his willingness to defer to Constable over paintings of the painter’s years in Italy. The resultant near-obliteration of Bellotto as a painter of Venetian views was to last for decades.9 On this occasion Koza-

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kiewicz clearly disagreed with Constable, writing ‘In my opinion, the picture is full of the characteristics of Bellotto’s brushwork’, but, in deference to his colleague, adding ‘the photograph on its own, however, does not permit a more positive attribution’ and consigning the painting to the section of ‘Works attributed to Bellotto’. What differentiates the critical history of this painting from many other Italian views by Bellotto is that it was already (or still) attributed correctly on its first recorded public appearance in 1915, and was sold correctly attributed in 1929. On the other hand, it is surprising that the painting has been overlooked in all the publications which have sought to rectify Kozakiewicz’s omissions. Although it has been untraced and not seen in public since its appearance on the London art market eighty-five years ago, good photographs have always been available (and, indeed, illustrations in both Constable’s and Kozakiewicz’s monographs). The first to recognize the painting’s authenticity was Bozena Kowalczyk, who, judging from a Cooper photograph in the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, observed ‘It seems to me that the painting is entirely autograph, on account of the depth and subtlety of the representation of the view, the precise organisation of the light, and the clearly defined shadows; the same slender figures recur in the Piazza Navona in the Brown-Boveri Collection in Baden’.10 The painting is indeed entirely characteristic of Bellotto’s first mature style in every respect: the solidity of the buildings, the extensive use of black, the sky below the clouds turning into horizontal bands, the calligraphy of the texturing of the wall on the left, the undulating shadows, one of which forms a step into the painting

across the lower edge, and the forms of the trees and figures. Several of the figures are Bellotto types which recur in other works, notably the four figures carrying sticks – the pilgrims by the fountain and silhouetted at the lower right, the gentleman visitor pointing with his cane and the old woman seen from behind. The painting is consistent with other views of Rome executed shortly after the painter’s visit probably in the spring of 1743, and is the same size as several of them, as the present writer pointed out in 2004: The Pantheon (Dayton Art Institute),11 The Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano,12 The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine,13 The Forum from the Temple of Castor and Pollux to the Church of Santa Francesca Romana (last recorded in the Ponti-Loren Collection),14 and a pair showing The Forum with the Temple of Castor and Pollux looking towards the Capitol and The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Forum.15 It has not been noticed previously that the painting formed part of the exceptional collection of Charles Crews. That included Pontormo’s Portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici recently sold in New York,16 Jan Gossaert’s Portrait of Jean de Carondelet in the Toledo Museum of Art,17 The Presentation of the Image of the Virgin of El Puig to King James I of Aragon by Zurbarán now in the Cincinnati Art Museum,18 François Boucher’s ‘La Tendre Pastorale’ recently sold in London,19 a Winter Landscape by Aert van der Neer now in the Rijksmuseum,20 An extensive River Landscape with a distant view of the Fort Saint-Jean and the Château de Pierre-Seize, Lyon, Peasants resting by a Shack and Horses pulling a Boat in the foreground by Johannes Lingelbach, currently on the London Art Market,21 a Portrait of a Rabbi currently attributed to Abraham van Dyck in the Burrell Collection,

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Glasgow,22 a Portrait of a Boy in Classical Costume in a Chariot drawn by a Goat by Nicolaes Maes,23 and an oil sketch by Rubens of A Hawking Party recently sold in London.24 Crews’ ownership of another Bellotto has, like that of our painting, also been overlooked; his celebrated view of The Piazza San Martino, Lucca, now in the York City Art Gallery, was lot 145 in his posthumous sale, described as ‘A. Canaletto’.25

The second recorded owner, the colliery and land-owner Sir Charles Seely, also owned the superb pair of Venetian views by Canaletto now in the Galleria del Brera, Milan, for which no earlier provenance is known,26 as well as Turner’s Cicero at his Villa at Tusculum, exhibited in 1839, now at Ascott, Buckinghamshire (National Trust).27

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1 The New York Times noted on 3 July 1915 that ‘Old masters went cheap at the second day’s sale at Christie’s of the collection of pictures of the late Charles T. D. Crews’; compare also the results recorded in notes xx–xxiv below. 2 To the versions published by G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, 2nd ed., ed. L. Laureati and L. Trezzani, Milan, 1996, pp. 132–136, nos. 1–15, may be added a previously unrecorded oil sold at Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 1998, lot 108, and a previously unrecorded tempera sold at Sotheby’s, London, 6 July 2005, lot 142. 3 Ibid., illustrated p. 53. 4 F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del ’700, Rome, 1986, nos. 152–3 and 307. 5 Published in Il Nuovo Teatro delle Fabriche et Edificii in Prospettiva di Roma Moderna, I, Rome, 1665, pl. VII. 6 Constable, op. cit., nos. 713(1–23). 7 Versions include: Anon. Sale, Christophe Joron-Derem, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4 March 2011, lot 28 (as ‘Atelier d’Antonio Joli’); Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia (Constable, op. cit., no. 402(aa), pl. 206 in the 1976 and later editions); Christie’s, London, 19 May 1967, lot 80; formerly in the collection of Baroness Gabriele Bentinck (ibid., no. 402(d); Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. Z 359); and Sotheby’s, New York, 28 January 1999, lot 461 (as Giacomo van Lint). A version certainly by Fabris is at Saltram House. 8 Constable’s archive is in the care of the present writer. 9 Kozakiewicz only accepted a mere six paintings of Venetian views as securely attributable to Bellotto (two of them incorrectly). 10 ‘Mi sembra che il dipinto sia interamente autografo, per lo spessore e la sottigliezza della descrizione; per un preciso impianto luministico, dalle ombre nette; le stesse sottili machiette appaiono nella Piazza Navona appartenuta alla collezione Brown-Boveri di Baden’; the latter was sold by Brown Boveri at Sotheby’s, London, 2 July 1986, lot 123, and subsequently sold again at Christie’s, Monaco, 22 June 1991, lot 140 (Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. 79, illustrated). 11 First identified as Bellotto’s work by Beddington, op. cit., pp. 673–4, fig. 24 (colour). 12 Exhibited Venice, Museo Correr, and Houston Museum of Fine Arts,

Bernardo Bellotto and the Capitals of Europe, 2001, no. 26 (entry by C. Beddington); offered at Sotheby’s, 7 July 2005, lot 51; subsequently with Robilant & Voena, London. 13 Offered at Christie’s, London, 7 July 2004, lot 98; subsequently with Cesare Lampronti, Rome. 14 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. 67. 15 Catalogue of the Venice and Houston exhibition, 2001, nos. 18–19 (entry by C. Beddington); sold at Christie’s, London, 7 December 2006, lot 72. 16 Christie’s, New York, 29 January 2014, lot 166; lot 144 in the 1915 sale, as ‘A. Bronzino’, and sold for 60 guineas. 17 Apparently previously owned by F. Crews, this was sold by Crews during his lifetime and was with Colnaghi in 1910. 18 Lot 232 in the 1915 sale. 19 Christie’s, London, 3 December 2013, lot 22; lot 122 in the 1915 sale. 20 Lot 49 in the 1915 sale. 21 Sold as lot 43 in the 1915 sale for a mere 8 guineas; currently with Colnaghi. 22 Lot 17 in the 1915 sale, as ‘G. van den Eeckhout’. 23 Lot 44 in the 1915 sale (sold for 40 guineas); sold at Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 13 November 2007, lot 59. 24 Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2011, lot 14; lot 81 in the 1915 sale, as ‘Sir A. Van Dyck’, sold for 30 guineas. 25 Described as ‘A. Canaletto – A View in Lucca. A square in the town, with a church and ﬁgures, 19½ in. by 27¾ in.’, it sold for 90 guineas to Agnew’s. That this is the York painting was conﬁrmed by Agnew’s themselves in the catalogue of their exhibition Venetian Eighteenth Century Painting, 5 June–19 July 1985, no. 5. 26 Constable, op. cit., nos. 107 and 191. His brother J. E. B. Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, also owned an exceptional pair of Venetian views by Canaletto, The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West, with the Church of Santa Maria della Salute (Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano, Alighiero de’ Micheli Collection, Milan) and The Piazza San Marco looking North, with the Torre dell’Orologio (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City), ibid., nos. 43 and 167. 27 Seely inherited the Turner from his father.

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bernardo bellotto, called Canaletto (Venice 1722 – 1780 Warsaw)

The Bacino di San Marco from the Canale della Giudecca, Venice Oil on canvas 47¾ x 86 in. (121.3 x 218.5 cm.) On loan from an English private collection provenance: Sir Arthur Ingram Aston, g.c.b. (1798–1859), Aston Hall, near Frodsham, Cheshire; his posthumous sale, Messrs. Churton (on the premises), 6 August 1862, lot 24, described as, ‘Canaletto – View on the Grand Canal, Venice, 3ft. 11in. by 7ft.’ (sold for 300 guineas). Thomas William Capron (b. 1818), Richmond, Surrey; his sale [‘The Property of Thomas Capron, Esq., who has left Richmond’], Christie’s, London, 21 January 1888, lot 31, described as ‘Canaletti – A Grand View of Venice. From Sir Arthur Aston’s Collection, Madrid’ (111 guineas to Smith). Sir Hugo Gerald de Bathe, 5th Bt. (1871–1940); his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 13 May 1931, lot 62, as ‘Canaletto – Venice, View of the Canale di San Marco with the Doge’s Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni in the distance and the Punta della Salute on the left; the Isola di San Giorgio on the right; numerous gondolas and other vessels on the water, efect of early morning light, 47 by 84 in’. With J. Leger & Son, London, 1931, as Bernardo Bellotto.1 With Vicars Brothers, London, from whom purchased in 1935 by the Hon. Clive Pearson, and thence by inheritance to the present owners.

literature: Parham Park. Illustrated List of Pictures, Watercolours and Drawings, privately published, p. 14, no. 162. S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London, 1972, II, p. 416–17, no. Z 106, illustrated. J. Ingamells, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Paintings, I, British, German, Italian, Spanish, London, 1985, p. 229, as ‘attributed to Bellotto’. V. Tritton and D. Coombs, Parham Park. Home of Mrs. P. A. Tritton, privately published, 1989, p. 3, illustrated. B. A. Kowalczyk in the catalogue of the exhibition Splendori del Settecento Veneziano, Museo del Settecento Veneziano – Ca’ Rezzonico, Gallerie dell’Accademia, and Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice, 26 May– 30 July 1995, p. 443, under no. 162. B. A. Kowalczyk, ‘Il Bellotto veneziano: “grande intendimento ricercasi”’, Arte Veneta, 48, 1996, pp. 78–80, ﬁg. 10, as Bernardo Bellotto (?). B. A. Kowalczyk, Il Bellotto italiano [Unpublished doctoral thesis for the Universita’ degli Studi di Venezia, 1996], no. 1, illustrated, and under no. 9.

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This painting demonstrates more than any other the ambition as well as the remarkable ability of Bellotto at a very early stage in his career. Datable around the last months of 1738 (see below), it is, indeed, the largest painting which the artist had attempted up to that date. Its size was only to be exceeded some five years later (and then only slightly) by the pair of The Piazza San Marco, looking South (Cleveland Museum of Art) and The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice, looking East, with the Church of Santa Maria della Salute (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles).2 This is significant as, in contrast with Canaletto, Bellotto’s preference for working on a large scale was to become increasingly evident as his career developed, and the dimensions of this painting are close to those of the masterpieces of his maturity, the great series of views of Dresden, Vienna and Munich. Recognised as early as 1931 as the work of Bellotto, the painting has since 1935 been in a private collection where it became so obscured by discoloured varnish that its quality was impossible to judge. Kozakiewicz, who showed enough diiculty recognising Bellotto’s work of the early 1740s, let alone that of the 1730s, inevitably included the painting among ‘attributed’ works, judging from a monochrome photograph that ‘the painting achieves a high standard technically and the brushwork is refined, but it does not appear to be the work of either Bellotto or Canale’. It is more surprising that he failed to notice the intimate relationship between the painting and a drawing by Bellotto in Darmstadt with an unbroken provenance from the artist himself [Fig. 1].3 Even before seeing the painting itself, this led Bozena Kowalczyk to give it serious

consideration, becoming, indeed, the first to do so.4 As she subsequently pointed out, this drawing is ‘a preparatory study, very probably autonomous, possibly earlier than 1738, inspired by similar views by Canaletto, which the painting follows very faithfully in the proportions, in the breadth of the view, in the arrangement of the light and of the boats, even in the clouds and the shapes of the figures’.5 Having seen the painting (then still dirty), Kowalczyk eloquently described it as ‘an unusual and majestically conceived image of a fanciful Venice, spread out, presenting itself on the Bacino, tightly described and meticulous in the final touches… the grey-green intonation is accented by colder violet hues for the Mint and pale pinks, mixed with white for the Doge’s Palace, duller for the shaded Island of San Giorgio, and by bright beige details on the Dogana. This atmosphere is typical of Bellotto. Some hesitancy is evident, albeit corresponding with that in the drawing, in the imperfectly balanced composition, in the slightly exaggerated curve of the Riva, in the boats resting on top of the water, and in the proportions of the figures… The horizon is low and the sky of great importance. The clouds at the horizon are typical of Bellotto, the large cloud with varied hues of grey and pink following exactly the drawing. The glittering water is also described with particular care… Every shadow and reflection, even if the result of an excessive attention to detail, is of exquisite efect. The drawing of the Dogana is precise, with the sharply defined shadow under the portico, thin black strokes indicating the blocks of stone, the outlines of the windows and the jutting out details. The slender and wavering Canalettesque figures on

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Fig. 1. Preparatory drawing. Courtesy of the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt.

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Fig. 2. Canaletto: The Bacino di San Marco (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

the quay faithfully follow the sketch… Also present is the outlined figure lit from behind under the portico, almost a signature… One may be astonished by this debut on a large scale, at its dimensions and spirit and certainly in its contradiction of those who have thought that he only paints “small paintings” [Kozakiewicz, op. cit., I, p. 67], and one can be even more amazed by his distance, at the very outset of his career, from Canaletto, be it in the composition, closer to Marieschi, or in the atmosphere; but this could be his way of expressing himself, without any particular obligations’.6 Recent cleaning has revealed the Bellottesque characteristics of the painting even more clearly. To those mentioned

by Kowalczyk one might add the application of the sky in diagonal strokes from upper right to lower left, the copious use of black, the incisions in the reflections and the distinct greyblue of the cloak of the gentleman in the sandalo in the centre foreground. It has also revealed the presence of scafolding around the new, onion-shaped pinnacle of the campanile of the church of Sant’Antonin (the fourth tower to the right of the Prisons), whose completion is documented to October 1738. This same detail is apparent in Canaletto’s great view of The Bacino di San Marco [Fig. 2; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston], which was painted for Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle, who was in Venice in that year, arriving by November.7 The

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Fig. 3. Bellotto: The Bacino di San Marco from the Canale della Giudecca, 23 5/8 x 36 3/8 in. (60 x 92.5 cm.). (Private Collection).

most Bellottesque of Canaletto’s masterpieces, and showing an attention to detail which might be thought even more excessive, that was clearly the painting which Bellotto sought to emulate. His composition has distinctly more in common with Canaletto’s view in the Wallace Collection, but that would seem to slightly post-date it.8 Bellotto’s painting is even larger than either.9 The re-emergence of several very early works has also clarified Bellotto’s development in his mid- to late-teens. This painting may now be seen to immediate precede the view of The Grand Canal, looking North-East, with the Church of Santa Croce (National Gallery, London), recently identified as Bellotto’s work by Kowalczyk,10 and The Bacino di San Marco on

Ascension Day (Castle Howard), also painted for Carlisle (see above).11 They also clarify the diferences in technique between this painting and a much smaller variant [Fig. 3], identified as by Bellotto by the present writer and Kowalczyk independently in 1995.12 In that there are many similarities between the boats, and their relationship to one another, but the space, and the breadth of the composition, are much reduced, in accordance with that painting’s much smaller dimensions.13 More textured, that painting has always been considered by Kowalczyk to be of slightly later date.14 Sir Arthur Aston, the first recorded owner, was a prominent diplomat. Serving first at the British Embassy in Vienna from 1817, he was made Secretary of Ligation at Rio de Janeiro in

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1826 and was appointed Secretary of the Embassy in Paris in 1833. Between 1840 and 1843 he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Madrid.15 His collection, as the catalogue of his posthumous sale tells us, included ‘the ﬁnest productions of the Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, French, Italian and other Schools’ (in more or less appropriate order). Of the 85 lots, twenty were Spanish, the only identiﬁable masterpiece being the larger of the two depictions of Saint Francis in Meditation by Francisco de Zurbarán, signed and dated 1639, in the National Gallery, London.16 It was previously in the collection of Serafín García de la Huerta (d. 1839), and most of the Spanish paintings must have been acquired during Aston’s posting in Madrid. The Italian paintings were few: landscapes given to Bassano, Salvator Rosa and Tempesta, a pair including a seaport given to ‘Borsini’, a portrait given

to Bonifazio and a copy after Titian. The only other Italian eighteenth century painting is also identiﬁable, and also of unusual size, a ‘Halt of Cavalry’ by Francesco Casanova, measuring no less than ‘7ft, 2¼ in. by 11ft, 2in.’ which was ofered by Sir Tatton Sykes, Bt., from Sledmere, at auction in 2001.17 Regrettably nothing is known of the earlier history of this painting, the only view painting in the collection. According to the catalogue of the 1888 sale, it was in Aston’s possession in Madrid, but this information does not come from the 1862 sale catalogue and may be due to a misunderstanding. Even if correct, it does not indicate that Aston purchased it in Spain, a country where there was little interest in Venetian views, although during the eighteenth century many works of art sent from Italy for England did end up there when the ships carrying them got into diiculties.

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1 Advertised and illustrated in The Burlington Magazine, LIX, no. 342, September 1931, p. v; I am indebted to Tom Ash for most of the details of the provenance. 2 53 ½ x 91 ½ in. (136.2 x 232.5 cm.) and 53 ¼ x 91 ¼ in. (135.5 x 232.5 cm.); see the catalogue of the exhibition Bernardo Bellotto and the Capitals of Europe, Museo Correr, Venice, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2001, no. 8. 3 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., pp. 8-13, no. 6, illustrated; M. Bleyl, Bernardo Bellotto genannt Canaletto: Zeichnungen aus dem Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 1981, p. 18, no. 9, illustrated; Kowalczyk, loc. cit., 1995, no. 162, illustrated; Kowalczyk, loc. cit., 1996i, fig. 11. 4 ‘Un grande dipinto della collezione Mrs Pearson, Parkham [sic] Park, Sussex, dipende senz’alcun dubbio su questo disegno e non si può escludere che anch’esso sia stato realizzato da Bellotto molto giovane’ (Kowalczyk, loc. cit., 1995). 5 ‘uno studio preparatorio, molto probabilmente autonomo, forse antecedente al 1738, ispirato a simili vedute del Canaletto, che il dipinto segue con molta fedeltà nelle proporzioni, nell’estensione della visuale, nella disposizione delle luci, delle barche, persino nel percorso delle nuvole e nelle sagome delle macchiette’ (Kowalzyk, loc. cit., 1996i). 6 ‘un’immagine inusuale e di grandiosa concezione, di una Venezia fantastica, dilatata, che s’affaccia sul Bacino, descrizione attenta e meticolosa nelle rifiniture… l’intonazione grigioverde è esaltata da sfumature più fredde di viola per la Zecca e dai rosati pallidi, mescolati al bianco, per il Palazzo Ducale, più opachi per l’Isola di San Giorgio all’ombra, e da quei particolari beige sabbia chiarissimi della Dogana. Quest’atmosfera è tipicamente bellottiana. Sono ben evidenti alcune indecisioni, che del resto seguono quelle del foglio preparatorio, nella composizione non perfettamente equilibrata, per quella curva un po’ troppo accentuata della Riva, nel poggiare le imbarcazioni sull’acqua, nelle proporzioni delle macchiette… l’orizzonte è basso e il cielo di grande importanza. Le nuvole all’orizzonte sono tipiche di Bellotto, la grande nuvola dalle più svariate sfumature di grigio e di rosa segue esattamente il disegno. Anche l’acqua lucente è descritta con particolare attenzione …; ogni ombra e riflesso, anche se risultato di una preoccupata diligenza, sono di uno squisito effetto. Nitido il disegno della Dogana con l’ombra netta sotto il portico, sottili le pennellate nere per segnare i mattoni, il contorno delle finestre, le sporgenze. Le esili ed incerte figurette canalettiane sulla fondamenta seguono fedelmente lo schizzo … Non manca la sagoma contro luce sotto il porticato, quasi una firma… Può stupire questo suo iniziare in grande, per dimenzioni e respiro e certamente in contraddizione con quanto si è da più parti creduto, che dipingesse soltanto “quadretti” [Kozakiewicz, op. cit., I, p. 67], e ancor più può stupire la distanza, in questo primissimo momento, dal Canaletto, sia nell’impostazione più vicina a Marieschi, che nell’atmosfera; ma questo potrebbe essere il suo modo di esprimersi, senza una particolare imposizione’ (Kowalczyk, loc. cit., 1996i).

7 W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, 1962 (and subsequent editions, revised by J. G. Links), I, pl. 32, II, no. 131; C. Beddington, catalogue of the exhibition Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals, National Gallery, London, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2010–11, no. 22. 8 No. P499; Constable, op. cit., II, no. 134 (also I, pl. 195 in the 1976 and 1989 editions). 9 They measure 124.5 x 204.5 cm. and 130.2 x 190.8 cm. respectively. 10 No. 1 in the Venice and Houston exhibition of 2001, where dated by Kowalczyk to 1738–9; B.A. Kowalczyk in the catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto e Bellotto: L’arte della veduta, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, 14 March–15 June 2008, no. 23, where dated to 1738. 11 Beddington, op. cit. (see note 8), no. 42. Another small version of the composition, closely resembling the other small version, was also executed for Carlisle; it was destroyed by fire in 1940 and is only known from old photographs (see, for instance D. Succi in the catalogue of the exhibition Bernardo Bellotto detto il Canaletto, Barchessa di Villa Morosini, Mirano, 1999, p. 53, fig. 34). 12 Sold from the collection of the late Sir Michael Sobell at Christie’s, London, 8 December 1995, lot 75, as Bellotto (entry by the present writer); Kowalczyk,, loc. cit., 1995; Kowalczyk, op. cit., 1996i, fig. 12; Kowalczyk, op. cit., 1996ii, no. 3, illustrated. 13 23 5/8 x 36 3/8 in. (60 x 92.5 cm.). 14 In both her discussions of this painting in 1996, Kowalczyk expresses reservations about its fully autograph status. In 1996i she expressed concern about diferences between it and a view of The Grand Canal with the Church of San Simeone Piccolò (Wallace Collection, London), a painting whose attribution to Bellotto, proposed by her, she has since discarded; in 1996ii the thicker application of paint in the small version led her to suggest that this painting was ‘maybe executed with some help, in 1737’ [‘magari realizzata con qualche aiuto, nel 1737’]. The recent cleaning of this painting has made it clear that it is entirely the work of one hand, and the re-emergence of other very early works, which show that the small version dates from slightly later in the painter’s development, has made it unquestionable that the hand is Bellotto’s. 15 E. Burke and I. S. Macadam, Annual Register ƒor the Year 1859, 1860, p, 408. 16 Lot 5 in the 1862 sale; NG5655; J. Gállego and J. Gudiol, Zurbarán 1598–1664, London, 1977, p. 90, no. 170, and p. 243, fig. 193; O. Delenda, Francisco de Zurbarán, Madrid, 2009, pp. 464–6, no. 150, illustrated. 17 Lot 67 in the 1862 sale; Sotheby’s, London, 13 December 2001, lot 66.

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giovanni antonio canal, called canaletto (Venice 1697 – 1768)

The Grand Canal, Venice, looking North-West from the Rialto Bridge Oil on canvas 20 7/8 x 31 1/8 in. (53 x 79 cm.) On loan from an English private collection

provenance: Presumably in an English collection by 1739 (see below). With Stephen Pollak, London, 1950. With Edward Speelman Ltd, London; his [anon.] sale, Christie’s, 1 May 1959, lot 86, as ‘A. Canaletto’ (550 guineas to the Fine Art Society). With the Fine Art Society, London, from whom purchased in July 1960 by Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton and Viscount Walberton (1883–1964), 31 Tite Street, London; thence by descent to the present owner. literature: W. G. Constable, Canaletto, London, 1962 (and subsequent editions, revised by J. G. Links), II, no. 233(h)1 (also p. 617 in the 1962 edition, p. 677 in later editions), as untraced. J. G. Links, Canaletto: The Complete Paintings, St Albans, 1981, p. 96, no. 329, as untraced. engraved: Henry Fletcher, inscribed ‘Canaleti Pinx; Jos Baudin del: / H. Fletcher sculp: / Publish’d by Joseph Baudin June ye 26th 1739’ (Fig. 1; Constable, op. cit., I, pl. 48).

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This painting, hidden in English private collections and until recently obscured by discoloured varnish which concealed its quality, has hitherto only been known from Henry Fletcher’s engraving.1 That forms part of a set of six of Venetian views by Canaletto, of which the prototypes of the other ﬁve have long been known. Four of the engravings are of two pairs: The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West, with the Church of Santa Maria della Salute (Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano, Alighiero de’ Micheli Collection, Milan) and its pendant The Piazza San Marco looking North, with the Torre dell’Orologio (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City);2 and The Grand Canal looking East from the Campo di San Vio and its pendant The Rialto Bridge from the South, on copper (Holkham Hall).3 The remaining already identiﬁed prototype is The Grand Canal looking NorthWest from the Fondamenta di Santa Croce to the Lagoon (Private Collection, Milan).4 It is uncertain how to interpret Fletcher’s pairing of the engravings of that and the exhibited painting. Now that the latter has been rediscovered, it may be seen that both paintings are on canvas, both of similar size and that both are unrecorded before their reappearances on the London market in the 1920s and 1950s respectively. However, they would seem to make unlikely pendants aesthetically, and would seem to differ in date by several years. The exhibited painting must be close in date to the larger version documented to 1725 which forms part of the important set of four views executed for the Lucchese collector Stefano Conti (Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin),5 on stylistic grounds, on account of the strong compositional similaries between the two, and from the presence in both of

scafolding on the far corner of the Fabbriche Nuove di Rialto which dominate the left side of the composition. That the exhibited painting is the earlier of the two is indicated by a further topographical detail. In the Turin painting further scafolding beyond the Fabbriche Nuove di Rialto and shortly before the Ca’ Pesaro, which is the last building visible on the far side of the canal, shows work commencing on the Ca’ Corner della Regina, begun in 1724; here there is no sign of it, suggesting a date for the painting of 1724. The painting in a Milan private collection must date from several years later. It is said to have a label on the reverse with an English inscription in an eighteenth century hand, recording that it shows, among the group of ﬁgures on the left, the British Resident in Venice Elizeus Burges, and the ﬁgure is indeed standing outside Burges’ house.6 The inscription goes on to say that ‘the genuine old and famous Canaletto painted the picture about 1730’; there seems no reason to doubt this information on stylistic grounds and the date is during Burges’ second term as Resident, which lasted from December 1728 until his death there in November 1736.7 Burges was a friend of Joseph Smith, Canaletto’s agent, and it is by no means unlikely that he acquired views by Canaletto, or that they were brought to England after his death.8 However, all that one can say for certain is that the prototypes of all six of the engraved paintings must have been in England by 1739, as the engravings were made from gouaches copied from the oils by the London resident Joseph Baudin (1691–1753/4), who was also the publisher.9 Subsequent variants of the composition all show the Ca’

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Corner della Regina complete: Royal Collection, Private collection (ex-Cyril Humphris, 1969), Musée Cognacq-Jay,

Paris, English private collection (ex-Christie’s, London, 10 July 1992, lot 26), and Swiss private collection (ex-Poss Collection, Novara).10 With the exception of the last, they also introduce the campanile of the church of SS. Apostoli on the far right, which, as Sir Oliver Millar pointed out, would not be visible from the chosen viewpoints.11 The Royal Collection version, which must date from c.1727–8, is of similar width but slightly smaller vertically than the exhibited painting, and a comparison shows Canaletto’s compositional development at this point in his career; in other respects the Royal Collection version is difﬁcult to judge, as it was updated by the artist himself at a much later date, quite possibly during his eight-month return to London in 1750–1. His alterations included the repainting of the depiction of Joseph Smith’s home, the Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana (in the exhibited painting the third and smallest palazzo on the right) to show the new façade designed by Antonio Visentini, which was unveiled on 22 October 1751, shortly after Canaletto’s return to London. The exhibited painting is unique in showing on the far right the side wall of a building with an arched portico.

1 I am indebted to Derek Johns for bringing the painting to my attention. 2 Constable, op. cit., nos. 43 and 167; exhibited Rome, Palazzo Giustiniani, Canaletto: il trionfo della veduta, 12 March–19 June 2005, nos. 21–2. 3 Constable, op. cit., nos. 192 and 226. 4 Constable, op. cit., no. 269. 5 Constable, op. cit., no. 230; exhibited Venice, Fondazione Cini, Canaletto prima maniera, 18 March–24 June 2001, pp. 172–3, no. 63. 6 I only know the painting from old photographs. 7 Constable, op. cit., 1962, note to no. 269; the identiﬁcation gains some support in J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701–1800, compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, New Haven and London, 1997, p. 158.

8 Burges returned to England after the end of his ﬁrst term as Resident in February 1722, which would seem to make it less likely that he commissioned the exhibited painting. 9 Two of these survive, a pair like their prototypes, the paintings now at Kansas City and in the FAI Collection in Milan; they were sold at Christie’s, Paris, 23 March 2006, lot 246 and are now in a Roman private collection. While several other Baudin gouaches after Canaletto are also known, that after the exhibited painting remains untraced. 10 Constable, op. cit., nos. 233, 233(aa), 233(a, c, d). 11 O. Millar in the catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto Paintings & Drawings, The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 1980–1, p. 44, under no. 14.

Fig 1. Henry Fletcher: Engraving after the exhibited painting, published by Joseph Baudin on 26 June 1739.

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the lyon master (Active in Venice c.1738â&#x20AC;&#x201C;44)

The Molo, Venice, from the Bacino di San Marco after Rain Oil on canvas 30 7/8 x 47 5/8 in. (78.5 x 121 cm.) provenance: Private Collection, Milan.

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The ‘Lyon Master’ was named by the present writer in 2005 after a view of The Grand Canal, looking North from the Ca’ Rezzonico to the Palazzo Balbi in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon [Fig. 1], which until then had been universally considered to be by Bernardo Bellotto.1 It was one of the few Venetian views unreservedly accepted by W. G. Constable as the work of Bellotto,2 and one of only six accepted unequivocally by Stefan Kozakiewicz in his standard monograph on the artist.3 Furthermore, a corresponding drawing certainly by Bellotto is in the Hessisches Landesmuseum at Darmstadt.4 The attribution of the Lyon painting to Bellotto had already been questioned by the present writer in 2002, along with that of two other paintings then attributed to Bellotto which may now be seen to be the work of the Lyon Master.5 The present writer wrote of the Lyon painting in 2005: ‘The painting is strongly Bellottesque, indeed it reveals a profound understanding of the earliest style of the notably precocious artist. The light is cold and wintry, the tone dark and sombre, with sharp contrasts between brightly lit façades and dark shadows. There is a clear fondness for black, a colour particularly favoured by Bellotto, and the colouring of the clothes of the ﬁgures is also consistent with his. The sky is clearly applied in diagonal strokes from lower left to upper right, a characteristic of Bellotto’s early technique, and the clouds, which lie in a band across the lower half of the sky, are similar to his in resembling drifts of icing sugar. There is extensive use of incising, and Bellotto’s technique for depicting decaying stucco over brick is imitated in the walls of the buildings on the Campo S. Samuele on the right. His youthful tendency to

depict boats as skating across the surface of water, rather than sitting in it, is also evident….[However] many features indicate a distinct artistic personality. The painter’s approach is less painterly and more linear than Bellotto’s, with a resultant lack of solidity in the buildings….The water, which is not articulated by Bellotto’s formula for ripples, is murky, and the depiction of reﬂections comparatively unsophisticated. Bright dashes of white are used to show the surface being broken by oars or the prows of boats. The tone is even darker and more sombre than is customary for Bellotto. The tiny ﬁgures are less Canalettesque than his are, and rather boneless in appearance; they wield exaggeratedly long oars. Another distinctive trait is the invariably bright highlighting of these and of the thwarts of the otherwise uniformly dark boats’. The present writer was able to identify in 2005 ten other Venetian views as the work of the same hand, including a Piazza San Marco, looking West in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse (datable before 1742); a pair showing The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking East from the Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, with Santa Maria della Salute and The Molo, looking West from the Bacino di San Marco towards the Entrance to the Grand Canal sold at auction in London in December 2000 as the work of Bellotto (which have a highly original nocturnal efect),6 and a pair showing The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco and The Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore.7 Surprisingly few examples have come to light since then.8 A pair showing The Grand Canal at the entrance to the Cannaregio with San Geremia and the Palazzo Labia and The Molo, looking West from the Bacino di San Marco towards the Entrance to the Grand Canal (the latter

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon ©mba photo Alain Basset

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Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon ©mba photo Alain Basset

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Fig. 1. The Lyon Master: The Grand Canal, looking North from the Ca’ Rezzonico to the Palazzo Balbi (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon).

a variant of that sold at auction in London in 2000) was sold at auction in London in December 2010.9 A view of The Grand Canal, looking South-West from the Rialto Bridge was sold at auction in Milan in 2006,10 and a view of The Grand Canal, looking East from Santa Maria della Carità to the Bacino di San Marco was shown at the European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht in 2007.11 To those may be added the exhibited painting, apparently previously unrecorded, which is one of the painter’s most ambitious works, in its highly original atmosphere and unusually large size. Most paintings by the Lyon Master are quite small, and the only example of comparable dimensions to this is the ‘name’ painting in Lyon [Fig. 1]. That is, in fact, of identical

size and may have originally been the pendant to the exhibited work. Versions of the composition of the exhibited painting are known by both Canaletto and Bellotto, both of distinctly smaller size. That by Canaletto [Fig. 2] formed part of a set of four Venetian views executed for Charles Paulet, 3rd Duke of Bolton (1685–1754) and later owned by the Clarke-Jervoise family, which were ﬁrst fully published by George Knox in 1993.12 Datable on stylistic grounds to c.1737, they are now dispersed in private collections. Bellotto painted versions of at least three of them, presumably in c.1737–8; that of the present composition re-emerged at auction in 2013 [Fig. 3].13 The Lyon Master must have been intimately acquainted with that, if not

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Fig. 2. Canaletto: The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco (Private Collection).

Canaletto’s version as well, but his rendition of the composition is anything but a copy. Apart from numerous diferences of detail, including many of the colours of the costumes, he transforms the atmosphere of the scene by showing it just after a storm has passed. As the turbulent rainclouds recede, the façades are struck by a glaring light, and that of the Doge’s Palace has rainwater trickling from the corners of the windows. While the Lyon Master was presumably young when he painted this, his imagination and willingness to attempt something very diferent from his illustrious master are quite remarkable. The Lyon Master was to return to the composition,

on a smaller scale, as the right-hand two-thirds of the Molo views sold at auction in London in 2000 and 2010. The Lyon Master was clearly Bellotto’s closest associate in Canaletto’s studio, intimately acquainted with Bellotto’s style, technique, and compositions. Like Bellotto in his very early years he only paints Venetian views. In 2005 the present writer was inclined to date his known work between c.1740 and c.1744. Since then, however, Bellotto’s precocity has become all the more apparent, and it is appropriate to bring forward the dating of the Lyon Master’s ﬁrst works, which are surely absolutely contemporaneous with Bellotto’s early views, in line

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Fig. 3. Bellotto: The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco (Sotheby’s, New York, 29 January 2013, lot 30).

with those. But the question remains: who was this strikingly original artist, contemporary with Bellotto, with a highly individual character, real ability and a particular interest in unusual efects of light, but a known œuvre which can only have taken him a few years to complete, and who must have stopped painting by the mid-1740s? The only possible identiﬁable candidate, albeit highly surprising as he is not known at all as a painter, is the famous etcher Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778). Bellotto’s senior by two years, Piranesi’s ﬁrst collection of prints was published in Rome in July 1743. Born in Mogliano Veneto near Mestre, he was in Venice until

September 1740, from May until probably September 1744, and from July 1745 until September 1747. The earlier dates, before his career as an etcher got underway, could correspond with the activity of the Lyon Master with some precision. There is little documentary evidence of Piranesi’s occupations during his early, Venetian years, but his biographers refer to his youthful work as a painter. Jacques-Guillaume Legrand (1753–1809) relates that while Piranesi was learning etching from Giuseppe Vasi (1710–82) in Rome in about 1742, Vasi would comment to Piranesi ‘Vous être trop peintre, mon ami, pour

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être jamais graveur’;14 substantiating this reference to Piranesi as a painter Legrand continues ‘Souvent il avait le désir de reprendre la peinture qu’il avait déjà pratiquée dans la manière de Benedetto Castiglione, de Piazzetta, du Tiepolo et de Canaletto sous lesquels il avait peint et dessiné.’15 Gian Ludovico Bianconi records that on his return to Venice (penniless) in 1744, Piranesi had to content himself with being able to ‘vendere le sue prospettive alla meglio …’; ‘prospettive’ could refer to either his early Roman prints or to Venetian views.16 We know that Piranesi certainly made drawings of Venetian views, as in a surviving letter of 25 November 1747, the architect (and friend and prospective biographer of Piranesi) Tommaso Temanza asks Piranesi for a copy of his drawing of the Rialto which he had seen and wants in connection with his projected history of Venetian architecture.17 In a forthcoming essay ‘“troppo pittore … per essere incisore” – Piranesi’s origins as a vedutista: the impact of Canaletto and Bellotto’, Francesco Nevola analyses compositional debts in Piranesi’s etchings to speciﬁc works by Canaletto and Bellotto, including the former’s drawings of Rome of 1719–20 in the

British Museum (which would not have been accessible to anybody outside the Canaletto workshop) and the latter’s painting of The Campidoglio and Santa Maria in Aracoeli of 1743 (Petworth House).18 He also points out the similarity in technique of Piranesi’s earliest known drawings with that practiced in the Canaletto workshop.19 The apparently close relationship between Piranesi and Bellotto is indeed such that a reunion with his colleague may have been one source of motivation for Bellotto’s visit to Rome in the spring of 1743, and that it may be no coincidence that Piranesi’s emergence as an etcher immediately precedes both Canaletto’s and Bellotto’s ﬁrst adoption of the technique. It may also be noted that the series of fourteen views of Rome executed by Bellotto with the assistance of his son Lorenzo in Warsaw in c.1769 almost all follow prints by Piranesi. Nevola promises that ‘all the correspondences found so far in works by Piranesi with those of Canaletto and Bellotto … will at a later date be the subject of a further study wherein the possibility is presented that for a time, early in his career, Piranesi played an anonymous role in Canaletto’s studio’.

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1 C. Beddington, ‘Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy, Part 2: The Lyon Master and Pietro Bellotti’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLVII, no. 1222, January 2005, pp. 16–21 and 25. 2 W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, 1962, II, under no.202. 3 S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, Recklinghausen and London, 1972, II, no.12. Kozakiewicz’s attribution of another of these was also, in fact, incorrect, a view of The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking East from the Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, with Santa Maria della Salute which is to be ofered at Im Kinsky, Vienna, 24 June 2014, lot 524. 4 Ibid., no.13; M. Bleyl, Bernardo Bellotto genannt Canaletto: Zeichnungen aus dem Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 1981, no.13. For the relationship between that and sketches by Canaletto in the Accademia sketchbook, see J. G. Links in W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, 2nd ed. revised by J. G. Links, Oxford, 1976, II, under no. 202. 5 C. Beddington, Review of the exhibition catalogue Settecento: Le siècle de Tiepolo. Peintures italiennes du XVIII siècle exposées dans les collections publiques françaises, by Olivier Bonfait et al., The Burlington Magazine, CXLIV, no. 1190, May 2002, p. 301. The other two paintings were the pair sold at Sotheby’s in 2000 (see below). 6 Sotheby’s, London, 14 December 2000, lot 90, as Bernardo Bellotto; since then with Colnaghi. 7 Sold at Christie’s, London, 12 December 1986, lots 97–8, as ‘Circle of Bernardo Bellotto’; the former was ofered at Sotheby’s, New York, 3 June 1988, lot 68, and Sotheby’s, Monaco, 2 December 1989, lot 345, as Bernardo Bellotto. All ﬁve of these paintings are illustrated in colour in the 2005 article, along with provenances and previous literature. 8 This is in striking contrast with the œuvre of the other painter discussed by the present writer in the 2005 article, Pietro Bellotti, which it has been possible to expand to the degree that a monographic exhibition has recently taken place (see no. 6 in the present catalogue). 9 Bonhams, London, 8 December 2010, lot 85. 10 Sotheby’s, Milan, 28 November 2006, lot 351, as ‘Scuola Veneta, Secolo XVIII’. 11 With a certiﬁcate by Dario Succi as Bernardo Bellotto.

12 G. Knox, ‘Four Canaletti for the Duke of Bolton and two “Aide-memoire”’, Apollo, CXXXVIII, no. 380 (New Series), October 1993, pp. 245–9. See also J. G. Links, A Supplement to W. G. Constable’s Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, 1998, pp. 9–10, no. 85**, and pp. 14–15, under no. 133*. 13 Identified independently by the present writer and Bozena Kowalczyk, it was sold in the auction of Property from the Estate of Giancarlo Baroni, Sotheby’s, New York, 29 January 2013, lot 30. See Kowalczyk’s catalogue entry for an analysis of the diferences of detail between Canaletto’s and Bellotto’s versions. 14 ‘You are too much a painter, my friend, to ever be an etcher’ (J.-G. Legrand, ‘Notice Historique sue la Vie et les Ouvrages de J.-B. Pirannèse’, Ms, c.1799, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MSS. Nouv. Acq. Fr. 5968; ed. G. Erouart and M. Mosser in ‘A propos de la ‘Notice Historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de J. B. Piranesi’: origine et fortune d’une biographie’ in Piranesè et les Français: colloque tenu à la Villa Medicis, 12–14 mai 1976, ed. G. Brunel, Rome, 1978, p. 223; also ed. R. Lambert in Piranèse, Les Prisons: Présentation par Marguerite Yourcenar. Suivi de la vie de Piranèse par Jacques-Guillaume Legrand, Paris, 1999, p. 98). 15 ‘He frequently wished to return to painting, which he had already practiced in the manner of Benedetto Castiglione, of Piazzetta, of Tiepolo and of Canaletto under whom he had painted and drawn’ (Erouart and Mosser, op. cit., p. 224; Lambert, idem). Piranesi certainly worked with Tiepolo in the mid-1740s. 16 ‘selling his views as best he could’ (G. L. Bianconi, Elogio storico del Cavaliere Giambattista Piranesi celebre antiquario, ed incisore di Roma, Rome, 1779, p. 266). 17 L. Puppi, ‘Appunti sulla educazione veneziana di Giambattista Piranesi’ in Piranesi tra Venezia e l’Europa (conference papers, Fondazione Cini, Venice, 1978), ed. A. Bettagno, Florence, 1983, p. 262. 18 To be published in 2015 in Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Predecessors, Contemporaries and Successors – Studies in Honour of John Wilton-Ely. For a convenient comparison of Bellotto’s and Piranesi’s views of the Campidoglio, see F. Nevola, Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The Grotteschi. The early years 1720 to 1750, Rome, 2009, pp. 40–1, figs. 22–3. I am deeply indebted to Francesco Nevola for extensive discussions over several years of the possible identification of the Lyon Master as Piranesi, for providing me with a draft of his forthcoming essay, and for all the information on Piranesi given here. 19 For which see also ibid., pp. 16–18.

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giuseppe zocchi (Florence 1716/17 – 1767)

A Capriccio of a Bridge over a River, with a Sculpted Lion on a Pedestal in the Foreground, a Castle and a Renaissance Villa beyond and

A Capriccio of a Bridge over a River guarded by a Tower, a Villa beyond Oil on canvas 19 ¾ x 28 3/8 in. (50.2 x 72 cm.) and 19 7/8 x 28 ¼ in. (50.5 x 71.8 cm.) a pair

provenance: Baron Michel, 4 Connaught Square, London;1 his (anonymous) sale, Sotheby’s, London, 6 December 1989, lot 5, as Giuseppe Zocchi (£198,000). With Chaucer Fine Art, London (Old Master Paintings & Selected Works by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 26 October – 14 December 1990, nos. 14–15, both illustrated in colour, as Bernardo Bellotto). literature: L. Salerno, I pittori di vedute in Italia (1580–1830), Rome, 1991, p. 214, pls. 62.5–6, both colour, as Bernardo Bellotto. B. A. Kowalczyk, Il Bellotto italiano [Unpublished doctoral thesis for the Universita’ degli Studi di Venezia, 1996], under no. 31. R. Contini, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Seventeenth and eighteenth century Italian painting, London, 2002, p. 248. B. A. Kowalczyk in the catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto e Bellotto: L’arte della veduta, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, 14 March–15 June 2008, p. 184, as copies after Bellotto ‘executed in the close circle of the artist’.

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Published by Professor Luigi Salerno as the work of Bernardo Bellotto and ofered as his work on the London market in the 1990s, these paintings difer stylistically from his, notably in their colouring and their non-Venetian handling. While they should unquestionably be returned to Giuseppe Zocchi, under whose name they were sold at auction in 1989, both compositions are related in interesting ways to works by the young Bellotto. The second painting was clearly inspired by Bellotto’s superb capriccio in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, which is of similar size.2 At first glance the two are very similar, and the correspondences extend to the forms of the clouds and many small details, including of colour. There are, however, significant diferences, most obviously in the forms of the distant mountains. In line with a general lowering of the horizon, Zocchi has replaced two tall trees and a distant cottage in Bellotto’s painting with a spire and two sails. Those are, however, shown, in similar positions behind a bridge, in a sketch and finished drawing by Bellotto of a related imaginary composition (in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and the Royal Collection respectively);3 that composition also incorporates other elements of this, notably all the buildings and the wall on the left, and the two wooden balconies on the right.4 Zocchi has further chosen to omit the recumbent eigy on the wall tomb on the right, while adding the two figures shown here in the left foreground and the four in front of the wall at the end of the bridge. No painting by Bellotto corresponding with the pendant is known, but the left hand two-thirds of the composition relates closely to a sketch by Bellotto and a finished drawing very probably by him (in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, and the

Royal Collection respectively),5 and, as Kowalczyk points out, it is likely that one existed. Here again Zocchi has introduced extensive diferences. The castle has been moved towards the left, and everything to the right of it except the bridge itself – including the whole of the distant landscape, the campanile and two adjacent buildings, and the shadow cast by the pole – is of Zocchi’s invention. In Bellotto’s drawings a classical ruin closes the composition at the right end of the bridge. None of the larger trees shown here, nor most of the smaller ones, feature in the drawings, where a line of cypresses breaks the skyline to the left. There are also many variations in the detail of the buildings, including the number of windows and the position of the clock on the largest tower. The cloud formations are diferent and all Zocchi’s figures are entirely his own. Thus both paintings are far from being slavish copies and clearly reveal Zocchi’s distinct artistic personality. Zocchi was by far the greatest view-painter of the eighteenth century in Florence, a city which never developed a ‘school’ of view painters. His wide activity as an artist includes paintings of views, mainly of his native city,6 capricci of classical ruins, and a superb series of drawings for engravings of Florence and elsewhere in Tuscany published in 1744 as Scelta di XXIV Vedute delle principali Contrade, Piazze, Chiese, e Palazzi della Città di Firenze and Vedute delle Ville, e altri Luoghi della Toscana.7 Zocchi’s painted views were clearly inspired by direct contact with Bellotto, and the influences – reciprocal in the figures – have led to occasional confusion between the two artists.8 A pen and ink drawing of The Arno at Florence, looking East towards the Ponte alla Carraia in the Uffizi, traditionally attributed to Zocchi, has been recognised by Marco Chiarini as the work of Bellotto.9

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Conversely, a closely related drawing (with notable variations) in Darmstadt with a provenance from Bellotto, has been identified by Chiarini as the work of Zocchi.10 The probability that these paintings and Bellotto’s versions were also executed in a situation of direct contact between the two artists is supported by the existence of larger versions of both compositions, recorded in the Aldo Borletti Collection, Milan, which must be the work of a third, less able, hand. 11 Those incorporate elements otherwise unique to both the present paintings and to Bellotto’s painting and drawings. One candidate for their authorship would be Bellotto’s brother Pietro Bellotti (see cat. no. 7), who almost certainly accompanied his brother to Florence in 1740 and is documented as his pupil between 5 November 1741 and 25 July 1742. The quality of the available illustrations, however, prohibits a definitive judgement. Conclusive proof that Bellotto’s and Zocchi’s paintings are coeval may be supplied by the foreground figures in Bellotto’s capriccio in Madrid, which were clearly contributed by another artist.12 Since they appear to be very similar in handling as well as colour to those in the corresponding painting in Zocchi’s pair, it seems probable that the artist was Zocchi.

Bellotto’s compositions must post-date his sketching visit to Padua, which is presumed to have taken place in 1741, not least because of the mainland Veneto elements incorporated. There is no evidence of any contact between Zocchi and Bellotto after the latter’s only certain visit to Florence, which is now known to have taken place in the summer of 1740 rather than in the spring of 1742, as had been supposed.13 Nor, surprisingly, is there any evidence of Zocchi ever having visited Venice. The revision in date of the documented Florentine visit suggests, however, that the dating of Bellotto’s visit to Rome may need to be revised from the spring of 1742 to the autumn of that year or to 1743. Although there is no evidence that he passed through Florence on that occasion, it would be surprising if he did not, and the existence of a pair of Florentine views clearly dating from distinctly later than the others (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) gives it strong support.14 Further evidence of a second visit to Florence by Bellotto, and of his renewed contact with Zocchi, would seem to be provided by these masterful reinterpretations by Zocchi of his colleague’s compositions.

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1 Both paintings formerly bore labels on the reverse of the frames inscribed ‘Canaletto – Landschaft in Verona geb. bei Schwalz-Wien als Marieschi’. 2 48.5 x 73 cm. S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London and Recklinghausen, 1972, II, p. 84, no. 109, illustrated; exhibited London, Royal Academy of Arts, 15 September–14 December 1994, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 29 January–23 April 1995, The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century, p. 428, no. 253, illustrated in colour p. 360; R. Contini, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Painting, London, 2002, pp. 244–9, no. 52, illustrated in colour. 3 Kowalczyk, op. cit., 2008, pp. 188–9, nos. 73–4, both illustrated in colour; Contini, op. cit., p. 247, ﬁg. 2. 4 The left side of that composition is also shown in a sketch in the Royal Collection traditionally given to Canaletto, but for which Kowalczyk has recently proposed an attribution to Bellotto (W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, 1962 (and subsequent editions, revised by J. G. Links), I, pl. 125; II, no. 687; Kowalczyk, op. cit., 2008, pp. 190–1, no. 75, illustrated in colour). 5 Ibid., pp. 184-7, nos. 71-2, both illustrated in colour. 6 For views of Florence recently sold at auction, see Sotheby’s, London, 11 December 2003, lots 44–5, Christie’s, London, 4 December 2012, lot 54, and Christie’s, Paris, 3 December 2003, lot 718 (a pair); an important view of Rome was sold at Bonhams, London, 8 July 2009, and was subsequently with Luca Baroni.

7 See, for instance, the catalogue of the exhibition Vues de Florence et de Toscane d’après Giuseppe Zocchi, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, 1974; for the complete set of preparatory drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, see, for instance, E. Evans Dee, catalogue of the exhibition Views of Florence and Tuscany by Giuseppe Zocchi 1711–1767, International Exhibitions Foundation, 1968–9. 8 For the resemblances, see, for instance, A. Tosi, Inventare la Realtà: Giuseppe Zocchi e la Toscana del Settecento, Florence, 1997, ﬁgs. on pp. 76–7 and 81. 9 M. Chiarini in the catalogue of the exhibition Bernardo Bellotto e le città europee, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, 15 June–16 September 1990, pp. 62–3, no. 6, illustrated. 10 M. Bleyl, Bernardo Bellotto genannt Canaletto: Zeichnungen aus dem Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 1981, p. 72, no. 57, illustrated; M. Chiarini in the catalogue of the exhibition Firenze e la sua Immagine: cinque secoli di vedutismo, Forte di Belvedere, Florence, 29 June–30 September 1994, p. 160, under no. 94. 11 60 x 90 cm.; Kozakiewicz, op. cit., II, pp. 490 and 497, nos. Z-417 and Z-430, both illustrated; Contini, op. cit., p. 247, ﬁg. 1. 12 See Ibid.,p. 247. 13 He arrived sometime between May and August and returned to Venice after 30 September 1740, see B. A. Kowalczyk, ‘Bellotto and Zanetti in Florence’, The Burlington Magazine, CLIV, no. 1306, January 2012, p. 24. 14 Kozakiewicz, op. cit., II, pp. 41–2, nos. 54–5, both illustrated.

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pietro bellotti, called Canaletti (Venice 1725 – c.1800 France)

The Molo, Venice, looking West, with the Doge’s Palace 15 x 19 1/8 in. (38 x 48.5 cm.) provenance: Le Marquis de Saint-Mauris-Montagne (‘No. 1807 / Ms de St-M-M’ inscribed on the stretcher). De Montcalm (recent inscription in chalk on the stretcher of the pendant). exhibited: Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento veneziano, Pietro Bellotti: un altro Canaletto, 7 December 2013–28 April 2014, p. 64, no. 9, illustrated in colour p. 83 (entry by C. Beddington). bibliography: C. Beddington, ‘Pietro Bellotti in England and elsewhere’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLIX, no. 1255, October 2007, p. 684, ﬁg. 30 (colour).

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Pietro Bellotti was the nephew of Canaletto and younger brother of Bernardo Bellotto.1 Despite that, his work was long overlooked, as he spent most of his relatively long career in France, but he has recently been granted a monographic exhibition in Venice (see above), in which the not inconsiderable amount that is now known about him was presented. Having presumably been an assistant in Canaletto’s studio, he probably accompanied his brother to Florence in 1740, as his name is inscribed on the back of one of Bernardo’s drawings of Lucca in the British Museum.2 That he may have stayed on in Florence after Bernardo’s departure is suggested by a painting by Pietro of The Piazza San Marco, looking South, which has an inscription on the reverse recording that it was painted by Antonio [sic] Canaletto in 1741 and was in the collection of the Marchese Gerini, who was Bernardo’s Florentine patron.3 He subsequently became the only documented pupil of his elder brother during the latter’s years in Venice, undertaking on 5 November 1741 to pay Bernardo 120 ducats a year for board and training, an arrangement which was terminated on 25 July 1742. We now know that, even before Canaletto’s departure for England in 1746 and Bellotto’s for Dresden in 1747, it was Pietro who began the family diaspora. He must have met his future wife, a French woman, in Genoa in c.1745, as their ﬁrst child was born in Toulouse in late 1746 or early 1747. The couple had returned to Genoa by about March 1748 and married there on 12 June.4 They subsequently left Italy deﬁnitively, and on 24 March 1749 the baptism took place in Toulouse of their second child. Even soon after his arrival in France Bellotti

began a peripatetic existence, with and without his family. In 1755 and 1756 he was working in Nantes, where he is again mentioned in 1768; he was in Besançon in 1761 and working in Lille in 1778–79. Several of the documents record him presenting a light show of transparencies painted with ‘the most beautiful views in Europe, such as Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan, Turin, London, Versailles, Strasbourg, several seaports and other depictions of ancient and modern architecture’. Of particular interest is a handbill issued in Paris in 1754/5 advertising this show by ‘Le Sieur Canalety, Peintre Venitien’. Pietro showed as little reticence as his brother in making full use of their uncle’s name and fame, and on the occasions when he signed paintings, generally used the form ‘Bellotti d[it] Canalet[t]i’.5 A period of possibly several years in London between 1762 and 1767, without his family or light show, produced two of his ﬁnest works, The Courtyard of the Royal Exchange, London (The Mercers’ Company, London),6 and Warwick Castle from the South (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).7 Bellotti is last recorded with certainty in Toulouse in 1776, and his last decades are swathed in obscurity; in 1805 the ﬁrst curator of the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, who had known him, stated that he had ‘died a short time ago in France’. This painting, and a pendant showing The Graben, Vienna, are closely related stylistically, thematically and in size to Bellotti’s series of seventeen views and capricci formerly in the collection of the Marquis de Beaumont at the Château de Merville, near Toulouse, the majority with eighteenth century inscriptions on the reverse identifying the artist as ‘Bellotti’;

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all were included in the recent exhibition.8 They may well record the appearance of the slides in the light show. Given his residence in France, Bellotti inevitably had to derive compositions from prints even more often than other view painters. This painting is based on plate 6 in Michele Marieschi’s Magniﬁcentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus published in 1741; while there are some variations in the boats, this is a rare instance of Bellotti following the sky of a prototype, the motif of the rays of the afternoon sun being enthusiastically adopted from the print. Domenico Crivellari has kindly pointed out that the inscription on the stretcher ‘Ms de St-M-M’ can only refer to the Marquis de Saint-Mauris en Montagne, a family which still existed in 1832 and which came from near Besançon in eastern France. The two candidates for ﬁrst ownership of the paintings would seem to be Charles-Emmanuel-Xavier de Saint-Mauris,

(Châtenois 1708–1773), marquis de Saint-Mauris, baron de chatenois et de Lavilleneuve, comte de Saulx, capitaine de cavalerie puis colonel et oicier-général des armées du roi, or his son Charles-Emmanuel-Polycarpe de Saint-Mauris, (Saulx 1753–1839 Colombier), marquis de Saint-Mauris, also ‘baron de chatenois, de Lavilleneuve, de Saulx et de Genvray, seigneur de Saint-Mauris-en-Montagne et des possessions primitives de sa famille, membre associé correspondant de l’Académie des Sciences, Belles Lettres, et Arts de Besançon, pair de France, maréchal des camps et armées du roi, inspecteur-général des gardes nationales, chevaliers des ordres de Saint-Louis et de Malte, chef et gouverneur de celui de Saint-Georges’. Given the close relationship between this painting and its pendant and the Merville series, ﬁrst recorded in 1765, it is tempting to connect them with Bellotti’s recorded presence in Besançon in February 1761.

1 Bernardo and his descendants in Poland seem to have been the only members of the family to spell their name with a final ‘o’. 2 S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London and Recklinghausen, 1972, II, p. 47, no.60. 3 C. Beddington, ‘Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy, Part 2: The Lyon Master and Pietro Bellotti’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLVII, no. 1222, January 2005, p. 25, fig. 20; C. Beddington in Venice 2013, pp. 45–9, fig. 2. 4 D. Crivellari in ibid., pp. 18–20. 5 Only two views signed on the front are known, one of The Lock at Dolo

(D. Succi ‘Pietro Bellotti: un altro “Canaletto”’, in the catalogue of the exhibition da canaletto a zuccarelli: il paesaggio veneto del Settecento, Villa Manin, Passariano, 2003, pp. 165–6, ﬁg. 139), the other of The Castel S. Angelo and the Vatican with an inscription apparently identifying it as having been executed for a patron in Amsterdam (Venice 2013, p. 70, no. 34). The other signed works are capricci (see, for instance, ibid., p. 71, nos. 40–43). The Vatican view, and one of the pairs of capricci are the only known dated works, all of 1771. 6 Ibid., p. 69, no. 33. 7 Ibid., p. 51, ﬁg. 3. 8 Ibid., pp. 65–8, nos. 13–29.

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francesco guardi (Venice 1712 – 1793)

The Bacino di San Marco, Venice, on Ascension Day, with the Bucintoro leaving for San Nicolò del Lido Oil on canvas 20 ½ x 33 3/8 in. (52.2 x 84.8 cm.)

provenance: (Probably) Richard Hart Davis, m.p. (1766–1842), Mortimer House, Clifton, Gloucestershire (see below). Philip John Miles, m.p. (1773–1845), Leigh Court, Abbots Leigh, Somerset, by 1822 (when it was hanging in the Billiard Room), and by descent there until 1884 through: His son Sir William Miles, 1st Bt, m.p. (1797–1878). His son Sir Philip Miles, 2nd Bt, m.p. (1825–1888); his sale, Christie’s, London, 28 June 1884, lot 25, as ‘F. Guardi – The Procession of the Doge at Venice, 2 ft. by 2 ft. 3 in.’;1 sold for 405 guineas to Agnew’s on behalf of ‘Baron A. Rothschild’.2 Baron Albert von Rothschild (1844–1911), Heugasse 24–26 (later Prinz-Eugen-Straße 22), Vienna.3 With Eduardo Moratilla, Paris. With Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo. ‘Private Collection’, Italy, 1957 (for which purchased recently, according to Pallucchini 1957). ‘Recently on the London market’ according to a letter of 21 July 1965 from Professor Rodolfo Pallucchini. Purchased in Munich on 8 August 1965 and by descent to the present owners.

exhibited: Milan, Galeria Sacerdoti, Antologia di tesori pittorici italiani dal XIV al XVIII sec., 1960, no. 20 (catalogue by M. Monteverdi, pp. 38–41, illustrated p. 18, giving the measurements as 50 x 90 cm.). literature: J. Young, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Leigh Court, near Bristol; the Seat of Philip John Miles, Esq. M.P. with Etchings from the Whole Collection, London, 1822, p. 27, no. 69, with an engraving, described as by Canaletti, as on wood and as measuring 24 x 27 in. W. Roberts, Memorials of Christie’s: A Record of Art Sales from 1766 to 1896, II, London, 1897, p. 75. R. Pallucchini, ‘Un capolavoro di F. Guardi vedutista’, Arte Veneta, XIo, 1957, pp. 226–8, figs. 239–40. W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, 1962 (and subsequent editions, revised by J. G. Links), II, no. 346, as untraced. A. Morassi, Guardi. L’opera completa di Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice, 1973, I, pp. 196–8 and 63–4, no. 285 (with the erroneous measurements of 50 x 90 cm. taken from the Sacerdoti exhibition catalogue); II, fig. 321 (and erroneously also as fig. 420, to illustrate a diferent, much smaller painting in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, not depicting Ascension Day). L. Rossi Bortolatto, L’opera completa di Francesco Guardi, Milan, 1974, no. 588, illustrated.

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Hidden in a private collection since 1965, this exceptional mature work by Guardi shows the most spectacular Venetian annual celebration, the Festa della Sensa. On Ascension Day each year the Doge and Senate were transported in the magnificent state barge called the Bucintoro from the Molo to near the church of San Nicolò del Lido for the ceremony of the Marriage with the Sea. In this the doge cast a gold ring into the water, symbolizing the close relationship with the sea to which the maritime republic owed its fortunes. The festival was the highpoint of the Venetian year, and one which visitors to Italy on the Grand Tour made every efort to attend. The presence of the Bucintoro, on the only occasion in the year when it left its dock at the Arsenal, and the accompanying flotilla of smaller vessels, made this the most picturesque of Venetian events. Depictions of it were inevitably the most sumptuous form of view painting; prized by collectors, they remain among the most admired works of Luca Carlevarijs, Canaletto and Guardi. An earlier rendition by Guardi of the subject, as here with the Molo seen more or less frontally, follows a Canaletto prototype.4 Comparing that with this painting, Professor Antonio Morassi wrote: ‘If that still has a Canalettesque flavour, both in the composition, with the Bucintoro up against the Doge’s Palace, and in the execution which looks back to the dramatic early style of Antonio Canal, in this example Francesco Guardi treats the theme in a wholly individual manner, distancing himself from the Molo and ofering a very expansive view of the whole of the district of San Marco, from the “Mainland” Granaries (now destroyed) and the old Mint, beyond the

Piazzetta, the Doge’s Palace and the Prisons as far as the Church of the Pietà (seen with its façade not yet ﬁnished). The Bucintoro, with its prow on the right, is already well clear of the Molo, and in front of the Doge’s Palace is moored a large galleon – the “State Galleon” – covered with an awning with yellow and red stripes. The whole of the foreground is crowded with vessels proceeding in a highly animated procession on the sheet of water which separates the San Marco district from the Island of San Giorgio. Pallucchini correctly points out that Guardi “leaves behind him the premises of Canalettesque staging, acclaiming the space in its essence as atmosphere to the point of dissolving it into a quivering atmosphere of touches and dots”’.5 In a certiﬁcate dated 7 July 1965, Morassi described the painting as ‘di eccezionale bellezza’ and dated it after 1780. Subsequently, in his standard monograph of 1973, he revised this dating to ‘around 1775–80’, referring to it as an ‘opera notevolissima’. The painting is surely coeval with the celebrated pair of views also showing the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day but from entirely diferent viewpoints, which were formerly in the collection of Senator Mario Crespi, Milan.6 Of slightly smaller size (50 x 80 cm.), those show The Bucintoro approaching San Nicolò del Lido and The Bucintoro returning to the Molo. The stylistic similarities with this painting are so pronounced that in the catalogue of the 1960 exhibition, Monteverdi actually confused this painting with one of them. Morassi, describing them as ‘among Guardi’s highest achievements as a view painter’ and ‘of great poetry’, inconsistently retains a dating for them of ‘1780 or shortly after’.7 Only one other depiction

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by Guardi of the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day, with the Molo seen more or less frontally, is known, in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.8 In that painting, which is of slightly larger dimensions (61 x 92 cm.), the range and forms of the buildings are very similar, and there are also two barges at lower left. The horizon line is higher, however, and the style is heavier; Morassi dates it to the 1770s without being more specific. The letters ‘CXC’ on the side of the stern of the Fusta, the prison barge permanently moored of the Molo, are also shown in the Gulbenkian variant and in Guardi’s view of The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco to be ofered at auction in July 2014.9 This painting has not hitherto been recognised as that which was engraved in 1822, as the work of Canaletto, in the outstanding collection of the wealthy merchant Philip Miles, m.p. (1773–1845) at Leigh Court, Somerset, where it remained until 1884. The great critic G. F. Waagen, who first visited the house in 1835, reserved the highest praise for the collection and the connoisseurship of its owner: ‘Though my expectations of this collection … had been raised very high, they were far exceeded. I found … a series of capital works of the most eminent Italian, Flemish, Spanish, and French masters, which would have done the highest honour to the palace of the greatest monarch in Europe … How seldom does it happen that persons who have acquired great wealth think of employing it in any other way than in a barbarous and tasteless luxury, and all possible refinement of animal worship …’.10 Among the other paintings were Raphael’s Way to Calvary, Giorgione’s

Adoration of the Magi, Gaspard Dughet’s Calling of Abraham, and Hogarth’s Shrimp Girl (all now in the National Gallery, London,), Domenichino’s Saint John the Evangelist (sold at auction in London in 2009),11 and the Altieri Claudes (The National Trust, Fairhaven Collection, Anglesey Abbey). Those, and indeed most of Miles’s paintings, were acquired when he purchased en bloc in c.1813 the collection of his close business associate and friend Richard Hart Davis. A self-made merchant, Member of Parliament for nearby Bristol, and avid collector, Davis had paid the unprecedented sum of 12,000 guineas for the Altieri Claudes, and would have been an even more appropriate candidate than Miles for Waagen’s praise. Miles had already acquired the Leigh Court estate from Davis in 1811, and he built the house speciﬁcally to display the collection acquired from his colleague. Among the few paintings he acquired subsequently were several purchased at the Henry Hope sale in London in 1816, including Rubens’s Christ and the Adultress (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels), and Michiel Sweerts’s The Plague at Athens (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). This and its presumed pendant (see below) were the only view paintings owned by Miles, and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it is likely that both also came from Davis. At Miles’s grandson’s sale in 1884, the painting was acquired by Agnew’s on behalf of a Viennese ‘Baron A. Rothschild’, presumably Baron Albert von Rothschild (1844–1911). It is uncertain when the painting left the collection of the Viennese branch of the Rothschild family, but the important pair of Venetian views by Guardi now in the Musée Nissim de

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Camondo, Paris, also came from the collection of Baron Albert von Rothschild in Vienna and was acquired by Moïse de Camondo from the dealer André Weill in 1932.12 As this painting is similarly next recorded on the Paris art market, with Eduardo Moratilla, it seems likely that all three were sold through Parisian dealers at the same time. A presumed pendant showing The Rialto Bridge from the North was listed as no. 70 in Young’s catalogue of 1822 and similarly illustrated with an engraving.13 That shows it to have been very

similar in composition to the painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which is of identical size but difers in including a sailing boat at lower right and, as far as one can tell, in other details and the cloud formations.14 It was unsold at 210 guineas in the Miles sale of 1884, and was again unsold, at 105 guineas, when reofered at Christie’s, London, on 13 May 1899, lot 20, and remains untraced. In any case, the composition would seem to make it unlikely that Guardi intended the two paintings as pendants.

1 Part of Christie’s stencil ‘864’ is visible on the stretcher. 2 An Agnew’s printed label of a type used between 1877 and c.1909 is on the stretcher. The painting is recorded in Agnew’s stock book as no. 3343. 3 Morassi gives the earliest provenance known to him as ‘coll. Rothschild, Vienna’. The painting was not in the possession of the Viennese Rothschilds in 1938; I am grateful to Michael Hall for this information. 4 Private collection, England, c/o Pyms Gallery, London; Morassi, op. cit., I, no. 281, II, figs. 310–12; exhibited Venice, Museo Correr, Francesco Guardi 1712– 1793, 29 September 2012–6 January 2013, p. 131, no. 37, illustrated in colour p. 111 (entry by C. Beddington). 5 ‘Se quella aveva ancora un sapore canalettiano, sia nella composizione, con il Bucintoro addossato a Palazzo Ducale, sia nella resa pittorica che si riprendeva allo stile drammatico giovanile di Antonio Canal, in questo esemplare Francesco Guardi risolve il tema con concetti del tutto propri, distaccandosi dal Molo ed offrendo una larghissima prospettiva di tutto S. Marco dai granai detti di Terrafirma (ora distrutti) e dall’antica Zecca oltre alla Piazzetta, il Palazzo Ducale, le Prigioni sino alla Chiesa della Pietà (che si vede con la facciata non ancora finita). Il Bucintoro con la prua a destra è già ben staccato dal Molo e davanti a Palazzo Ducale è ormeggiato un gran galeone – il “galeone di Stato” – coperto da un telone a striscie giallo-rosse. Tutto il primo piano è gremito d’imbarcazioni che procedono in animatissimo corteo nello specchio d’acqua che divide il Prospetto di S. Marco dall’Isola di S. Giorgio. Osserva giustamente il Pallucchini che il Guardi “lascia alle spalle i presupposti di una messa in scena canalettiana, esaltando lo spazio nella sua realtà di

medium atmosferico fino al dissolvimento di tale entità spaziale in una atmosfera vibrata di tocchi e di punti”’ (Morassi, op. cit., I, pp. 196–8). 6 Ibid., I, pp. 193–6 and nos. 283–4; II, figs. 313–14; exhibited Venice, Sant’Apollonia, Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra, Vedute italiane del ’700 in collezioni private italiane, 19 September–8 November 1987, p. 45, nos. 42–3, illustrated in colour pp. 78–9 and with a detail on the dustjacket. Inherited by Crespi’s step-daughter Elvira (“Biki”) Leonardi Bouyeure, these were sold from her estate to a group of dealers and exported from Italy, since when they have not been seen in public. 7 ‘tra i più alti raggiungimenti della vedutistica del Guardi’; ‘di alto valore poetico’. 8 Morassi, op. cit., I, no. 403; II, fig. 427; M. Muraro, Os Guardi da Colecção C. Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1993, pp. 41–3, no. 10, illustrated in colour. 9 Christie’s, London, 8 July 2014, lot 19. That painting also has a Rothschild provenance, from the French branch of the family. 10 G. F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, III, London, 1838, pp. 134–5. 11 Christie’s, London, 8 December 2009, lot 28; now on loan to the National Gallery, London, from a private collection. 12 Morassi, op. cit., nos. 394 and 420. 13 The size given is identical, though the support is here given (no doubt correctly) as canvas; Constable, op. cit., no. 238(a), as untraced. 14 Morassi, op. cit., I, no. 554; II, fig. 530. The painting was acquired by the museum in 1871. A version of identical size sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 5 June 2014, lot 78, difers from the Miles composition in the same respects.

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Catalogue ÂŠ Charles Beddington 2014 Designed by Simon Rendall & printed by Empress Litho Woolwich

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