Giovanni Antonio Guardi

Morosini-Gatterburg Collection

E. Martini, La pittura veneziana del Settecento, Venice 1964, p. 275, reproduced fig. 269;
A. Morassi, Guardi. Tutti i Disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi, Venice 1975, p. 98, cat. 113, reproduced fig. 115

Scattered foxing . Margins uncut and a small black stain in the middle at the top. Pen and ink and wash fresh and in good condition. Sold in a modern wooden and gilded imitation of an 18th Century Venetian frame.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This large and handsome drawing by Giovanni Antonio Guardi belongs to a series representing Venetian historical subjects, known as the 'Fasti di Venezia', all of which are similar in scale and media and all drawn on two sheets of paper.  These drawings were once in the Venetian collection of the Morosini-Gatterburg, part of an album of drawings then attributed to Sebastiano Ricci, which was dismembered, possibly at the beginning of the 20th century, and is now dispersed in various public and private collections.  The largest group of these impressive drawings, 37 in number, is in the Fondazione Cini, Venice.  All the drawings bear numberings in brown ink on the verso; the present sheet is numbered 19.  As pointed out by Morassi (see Literature, p. 31), the highest of these numbers that is currently known is 58, but it is not possible to know how many sheets were originally contained in the album.  Giuseppe Fiocco was the first to suggest, in 1944,¹ that these impressive drawings were for the most part loosely based on the paintings in the Doge's Palace and the Scuola di San Marco.  The present sheet is inspired by the upright painting in the Sala dello Scrutinio of the Doge's Palace, painted by Antonio Vassilacchi, called L'Aliense (1556-1629).  

Morassi suggested that the series was probably executed for the Morosini family, which originally owned the album, to celebrate their ancestors, admirals and condottieri of the Serenissima.   The series was created for its own sake and lavishly finished, as here, with the subtle use of wash and framing lines.

1. G. Fiocco, 'I Fasti veneziani dei pittori Guardi', Le Tre Venezie, July-December 1944, pp. 9-15