View of Piazza San Marco, Venice
View of Piazza San Marco, Venice
- Artist
- Canaletto
- Also Known As
- Antonio Canal
- Artist Dates
- 1697-1768
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- View of Piazza San Marco, Venice
- Date
- c. 1740 / 46
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 50.2 x 82.3 cm (19-3/4 x 32-3/8 in)
- K Number
- K1805
- Repository
- Allentown Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 1961.044.000
- Notes
Catalogue Entry
Canaletto
View of Piazza San Marco, Venice
K1805
Allentown, Pa., Allentown Art Museum (61.44.KG), since 1960.(1) Canvas. 19 3/4 x 32 3/8 in. (50.2 x 82.3 cm.). Good condition except for damage in left part of facade and right side of sky; cleaned, 1954/55. Canaletto himself has been credited with K1805, as a product of his maturity, about 1750.(2) The rather careless, imprecise manner of its execution, however, has tended to classify it as studio work.(3) The unfavorable impression is reinforced by the poor condition of the painting, in which X-ray reveals large areas of the original pigment as missing or badly damaged, especially in many places across the facades of the buildings. K1805 is classified as a variant of Canaletto's Piazzetta: Looking South in the John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana.(4) The John Herron painting includes a slightly less extensive view than K1805. The latter shows a full bay of the facade of San Marco at the left edge of the canvas. Then comes the west fayade of the Ducal Palace, with a marionette show set up under the middle arch of the arcade. At the right is the Loggetta and the edge of the Campanile, with cornice and upper balustrade of a corner of Sansovino's Libreria di San Marco showing beyond. In the distance are the campanile and dome of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore. Provenance: Robinson, London.(5) Albert Freiherr von Lanna (sold, Paul Cassirer & Hugo Helbing's, Munich, Nov. 6, 1929, no. 31 of catalogue, as Canaletto). Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1950 –exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1136), 1951-60;(6) Chattanooga Art Association, George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art, Chattanooga, Tenn., July I2-Aug. 3, 1952, unnumbered p. of catalogue, as Canaletto; after entering the Allentown Art Museum: Masters of Lalldscape: East aud West, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, N.Y., Sept. 15-Oct. 13, 1963, and Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y., Nov. 1-Dec. 1, 1963, no. 37 of catalogue, as Canaletto.
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1960, p. 74, as Canaletto. (2) K1805 has been attributed to Canaletto by R. Longhi (in ms. opinion), dating it c. 1750; B. Berenson (in ms. opinion); Suida (loc. cit. in note 6, below), accepting Longhi's date, c. 1750; V. Moschini (Canaletto, 1954, pls. 108 f.), grouping it with paintings of c. 1740; and tentatively by L. Puppi (The Complete Paintings of Canaletto, 1970, no. 181). W. G. Constable (in ms. opinion, 1954, and Canaletto, vol. II, 1962, no. 61) considers it studio work and favors a date in the 1740's. (3) See note 2, above. (4) Reproduced by Constable, vol. I, no. 58, pl. 22 of op. cit. in note 2, above. (5) The Robinson ownership, which is cited in the catalogue of the 1929 sale listed under Provenance, has not been traced; Constable (loc. cit. in note 2, above) asks whether J. C. Robinson is indicated. (6) Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection, 1951, p. 162 (catalogue by W. E. Suida), as Canaletto, c. 1750.