* Francesco Guardi Venice 1712 - 1793

The main drawing on the recto of this attractive and interesting sheet is a preparatory study by Francesco Guardi for his painting of the same subject now in the Accademia di Carrrara, Bergamo, which Morassi considers a late work (see A. Morassi, Guardi, Venice 1973, vol. I, cat. no. 752, vol. II, fig. 694).  There are differences between the painting and the drawing, particularly in the figures and a few ornamental details which do not appear in the picture, such as the statue to the right or the vase on top of the balustrade on the far left.  As Morassi correctly observes in his entry on the Carrara painting, a related drawing in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is weak in execution, with a more similar arrangement of the figures to the painting (see J. Bean and W. Griswold, 18th Century Italian Drawings..., New York 1990, cat. no. 111).

The drawing on the verso may be by the Venetian engraver Antonio Visentini (1688-1782), as it corresponds closely to a section of his engraved view of the Isola della Certosa with the Church and the Convent of Sant' Andrea (see D. Succi, Canaletto and Visentini, Venice 1986, p. 260, no. 43, reproduced).  The print is part of a series of twenty engravings, first published by Francesco Guicciardini in 1738, under the title Della Istoria d'Italia.  The religious establishments on the Isola della Certosa were suppressed in 1810 and the buildings themselves demolished shortly thereafter.