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Pair of Grand Tour Venetian Views, c. 1900. browse these categories for related items... All Items: Fine Art:Paintings:Watercolor: Pre 1910: item # 788765 Please refer to our stock # 2541C when inquiring.
Raymond Agler Fine Arts 16 Pleasant Street Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930 978-281-5048 $950 |
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| Italian School. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 14.5 x 10.5 inches, 23.5 x 19.5 inches framed, each signed lower right. Two extraordinary turn-of-the-century "Grand Tour" views of Venice. One is of the Piazzetta from the Bacino di San Marco. The view is toward the Piazza di San Marco and the Basilica, with a corner of the Doge's Palace and the column bearing the "Lion of St. Mark" in the foreground. The lion, incidentally, is thought to be Persian (4th C. AD) or even Chinese, with the wings added at a later date. The view is from almost the same vantage point chosen by Bernardo Bellotto in the 18th C. for the painting now in the National Gallery of Canada. Bellotto's view, however, includes the Campanile or bell tower which this work omits by moving the vantage point slightly to the west, thereby including the Basilica (which Mark Twain irreverently referred to as "a big warty bug") in the distance. A possible reason for this repositioning might be that this work was executed during the reconstruction of the Campanile after its collapse in July 1902. The second view is of the Ponte dei Sospiri or Bridge of Sighs which connects the prisons and judicial examining rooms in the Doges's Palace to the Prigioni Nuove or New Prison (c. 1589) just to the east. The name of the bridge supposedly derives from the reaction of the condemned who would be having their last view of the sea as they passed over the bridge. The views are of outstanding quality and exceptional detail. The signature, reproduced in the photos, is not known to us. (Please excuse the glass reflections). | ||
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