Vista do Grande Canal com a Ponte Rialto e o Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, Veneza, Itália (Venice, a View of the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge and the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi) - Michele Marieschi

 

Vista do Grande Canal com a Ponte Rialto e o Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, Veneza, Itália (Venice, a View of the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge and the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi) - Michele Marieschi
Veneza - Itália
Coleção privada
OST - 52x81



The view is taken from a quay where the nineteenth-century Casa Sernagiotto now stands, its position being shown clearly in paintings by Francesco Guardi. While the viewpoint is similar to that used by Canaletto for his depictions of the subject, the result is very different. With the Palazzo dei Camarlenghi seen almost frontally and the Fabbriche Vecchie di Rialto receding towards the right, Marieschi has created a composition which is very much his own. It is, indeed, one of the best demonstrations of the artist's characteristic wide-angled vision. The composition was popular from its inception, and it reached a wide audience through Marieschi's own etching of it, plate 6 in his set of 21 plates published in 1741-1742 as Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetianum Prospectus, and numerous derivations are known.
The present picture is dated by Dario Succi to 1740-1741, towards the end of the artist's brief career. Its quality was particularly noted by Antonio Morassi, who described it as "stupenda," and by Mario Manzelli, for whom it is "certainly the best of the four catalogued editions." The large and especially vivacious figures are given by Young and Toledno to Giovanni Antonio Guardi. Possibly the most singular distinction of the painting is that the monogram on the second barrel from the right, first noted by Morsassi, has often been accepted as a signature. The picture is regarded as signed by Manzelli, Toledano (with reservations), Pallucchini and Young (the latter regarding the 'M' on the far right barrel as the signature). Only three other paintings by Marieschi have been considered signed, The Rialto Bridge and the Riva del Ferro in the Hermitage; The Rialto Bridge from the South in the Bristol City Art Gallery; and The Rialto Bridge from the North with the Arrival of the Patriarch Antonio Correr in the collection of the National Trust at Osterley Park.