- 62
Giovanni Antonio Guardi Vienna 1699 - 1760 Venice
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Description
- Giovanni Antonio Guardi
- Three couples in exotic dress dancing in front of a fire
- oil on canvas
Provenance
One of a set of forty-three quadri Turchi painted in 1742-3 for Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747), Palazzo Loredan a San Trovaso, Venice;
Bequeathed to his nephew Christian Günther von der Schulenburg, Berlin;
Thence by family inheritance and descent.
Exhibited
Berlin, Europa und der Orient 800-1900, 1989, no. 13/1;
Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, 28 August - 21 November 1993, no. 11.
Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, 28 August - 21 November 1993, no. 11.
Literature
Inventario Generale della Galleria di S.E. Maresciallo Co: di Schulenburg..., Venice, 30 June 1741, addendum: Tableaux achetés après le sudit Cattalogue, 1746 (Hannover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Depositum 82, Abt. III, no. 37), "Guardi - 43 Tabl rappt: les Coutumes des Turcs" (cited in A. Binion, 1990, p. 245, see below);
Quadri e Ritratti Essistenti nelle differenti Camere del Palazzo del Defonto Eccellentissimo Maresciallo, Venice, August 1747 (Hannover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Depositum 82, Abt. III, no. 33), "Guardi - Quaranta tre quadri rapresentano costumi dei Turchi" (in the 'Camera del Sigr Ten.te Col.o Arcoleo' in Palazzo Loredan a San Trovaso; cited in Binion, op. cit., p. 259);
A. Morassi, "Four newly discovered Turkish scenes", in Apollo, vol. XCIX, no. 146, 1974, pp. 274-8, reproduced p. 274, fig. 1 (as A Dance of Three Turkish Couples in front of a fire);
Europa und der Orient 800-1900, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, 1989, p. 831, cat. no. 13/1;
A. Binion, La Galleria Scomparsa del Maresciallo Von der Schulenburg, Milan 1990, pp. 107, 112, foonotes 15-19, pp. 245 and 259;
F. Pedrocco & F. Montecuccoli degli Erri, Antonio Guardi, Milan 1992, p. 131, cat. no. 73, reproduced p. 212, fig. 91;
A. Bettagno, in Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 28 August - 21 November 1993, pp. 50-1, cat. no. 11, reproduced in colour.
Quadri e Ritratti Essistenti nelle differenti Camere del Palazzo del Defonto Eccellentissimo Maresciallo, Venice, August 1747 (Hannover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Depositum 82, Abt. III, no. 33), "Guardi - Quaranta tre quadri rapresentano costumi dei Turchi" (in the 'Camera del Sigr Ten.te Col.o Arcoleo' in Palazzo Loredan a San Trovaso; cited in Binion, op. cit., p. 259);
A. Morassi, "Four newly discovered Turkish scenes", in Apollo, vol. XCIX, no. 146, 1974, pp. 274-8, reproduced p. 274, fig. 1 (as A Dance of Three Turkish Couples in front of a fire);
Europa und der Orient 800-1900, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, 1989, p. 831, cat. no. 13/1;
A. Binion, La Galleria Scomparsa del Maresciallo Von der Schulenburg, Milan 1990, pp. 107, 112, foonotes 15-19, pp. 245 and 259;
F. Pedrocco & F. Montecuccoli degli Erri, Antonio Guardi, Milan 1992, p. 131, cat. no. 73, reproduced p. 212, fig. 91;
A. Bettagno, in Guardi. Quadri turcheschi, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 28 August - 21 November 1993, pp. 50-1, cat. no. 11, reproduced in colour.
Catalogue Note
The folkloristic aspects of this painting are exactly what fascinated Europeans with the Orient. Three couples in exotic dress are shown dancing what Catherine Vigne-Boppe considers to be the Greek khorra in front of a fire. A similar subject, though different in composition, was treated by Jean-Baptiste van Mour in a painting today in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. 2009; reproduced in All the Paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. A completely illustrated catalogue, Amsterdam 1976, p. 747). That painting was once in the collection of the dutchman Cornelius Calkoen, Dutch ambassador in Constantinople from 1726 to 1746, and it is quite possible that a copy or variant of it was in Venice for Guardi to have used as inspiration.