Michele Marieschi

Acquired by Frederick II, King of Prussia (1712–86), and recorded in the Neues Palais, Potsdam by 1774;

Thence by descent, from 1926 to a member of the ‘Haus Preussen’.

M. Osterreich, Description de tout l'intérieur des deux Palais de Sans-Souci, de ceux de Potsdam et de Charlottenbourg, contenant l'explication de tous les tableaux comme aussi des antiquités et d'autre choses précieuses et remarquables', Potsdam 1773, p. 69, nos 238–44, 'Dans les apartments de son Altesse Royale Madame la Princesse Henri', 5–11, 'Sont des vues de Vénise....peintes par le vieux Canaletto';

Generalkatalog I Gemälde in aller preußischen Schlössern, (GK I) Berlin 1883 onwards, no. 5319 (label affixed to the reverse);

G. Bartoschek, Die Gemälde im Neuen Palais, Berlin 1976, p. 46, nos. 238–44 (with incorrect inventory number).

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Michele Marieschi. View of Venice. This painting on canvas with a diagonal grain has a very old lining, and possibly the original stretcher. The remarkable condition of the brushwork and the paint surface is extremely rare, with the sun dried oil of Venice holding the impasted crest of each stroke firm and intact. The sensuous texture is uncrushed and there is no wear of any sort. There is some fragility especially in the upper right sky, where one or two small flakes have been lost and others are raised. Small superficial losses of upper layers on fragile flakes nearby have had little surface retouches and a patch of lost paint in the awning of the foreground gondola has also had a dab of repaint. Old retouching can be seen along the outer top edge with the lining. However clearly this painting is in an exceptional state of preservation, perhaps never having been revarnished or restored. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Unseen and unpublished for over two hundred and fifty years this beautiful view of Venice boasts an unbroken imperial provenance of unmatched importance. It originally formed part of a group gathered by King Frederick II of Prussia, one of the most important early collectors of Marieschi’s work and is the first of the group ever to have appeared at auction. 

The first recorded owner of this canvas, Frederick II of Prussia (1712–86: see fig. 1), more commonly known as Frederick ‘the Great’, was much the most cultivated and enlightened of the Hohenzollern kings of Prussia. His reign marked a distinguished flowering of royal patronage in the arts and sciences, including the building of the new opera house in Berlin from 1741, the expansion of Schloss Charlottenburg, the Potsdam Stadtschloss 1744–52, and most famously, the building of the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam between 1745 and 1747. This painting hung in the extension of the latter, the Neues Palais, which was built between 1763 and 1769 by Johann Gottfried Büring and Karl Philipp Christian von Gontard, to give architectural expression to Prussia’s enhanced international prestige following its victory in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48). 

Frederick filled the Neues Palais with furniture and Dutch, French and Italian paintings of the eighteenth century. The keynote was set by the French, among them Antoine Pesne (1683–1757), Carle Vanloo (1705–65), Jean-Baptise Pierre (1714–89), and Charles Amédée van Loo (1719–95), whose Feast of the Gods on Olympus (1769) covered the ceiling of the great Marmorsaal. According to the Hängeplan of 1774, this Marieschi was hung in room 72 on the first floor, belonging to the Duke of Brunswick-Oels, which was decorated with Marieschi's vedute flanking works by Francesco Albani and Pietro da Cortona. These are probably the seven 'vues de Venise' recorded by Matthias Osterreich, the Inspector of the Picture Gallery at Sanssouci, in Princess Henri's [sic] apartments in 1773, when they were attributed to Canaletto. Of these seven, five are still extant. The other four were views of the Rialto Bridge, the Dogana, The Palazzo Ducale and the Palazzo Pesaro.¹ Frederick seems to have some affinity with Venetian vedute, for he had already used a similar scheme to decorate his bedchamber in Sanssouci, which included two Canalettos and another six works by Marieschi. These all survive today: four are at Schloss Charlottenburg: a Bacino di San Marco, the Piazza San Marco, a View of San Giorgio Maggiore, and another of the Cannareggio, while the other two, a View on the Grand Canal and the Grand Canal at the Cannareggio, are in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin.² The set were probably painted together around 1738–39, and a similar date of execution is likely for the present work. How Frederick acquired them is not documented, but most scholars have speculated that such works were probably acquired through the agency of the Venetian painter and art critic Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder (1679–1767). Zanetti had built up an impressive list of contacts among visiting royalty or their agents, and numbered, for example, Philippe Duc d’Orleans and Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein among his patrons. More importantly, he was also a close friend of Matthias Osterreich, ‘Inspettor della Galleria di Pittura di S.M. Re di Prussia’, the early curator and chronicler of the paintings back in Potsdam.

In common with its earlier counterpart in Charlottenburg, this painting reprises one of Marieschi’s most popular viewpoints, looking from the Ponte della Dogana across the Bacino to the Molo and the Palazzo Ducale. We see together from the left the Zecca, the Libreria, the Piazzetta and the famous Campanile, and to the right of the Ducal Palace, the Bridge of Sighs leading towards the Prison, with the Doge’s barge, the Bucintoro at anchor. Similar views include, for example, that formerly in the Buckingham Collection, sold in these Rooms 9 April 1986, lot 96,  and that painted for Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (1684–1758) and sold in these Rooms 3 July 2013, lot 41.³ Another comparable view, of slightly smaller dimensions, was sold London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 79. 

  

1. See Bartoschek, Literature, 1976. The measurements of the group are given as 58 by 93 cm.; the last two are in Berlin, Museuminsel (StM 493 and StM 501), and the Dogana is now in a Milanese private collection.
2. For which see F. Montecuccoli degli Erri and F. Perocco, Michele Marieschi, La vita, l’ambiente, l’opera. Milan 1992, pp. 314–17, nos. 92–95 and 96–97, reproduced. The scheme also included works by Gian Paolo Panini.
3. Reproduced in R. Toledano, Michele Marieschi. L’opera completa, Milan 1988, nos V.I.1 and V.I.3