Michele Marieschi

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The paint layers of this picture are overall in very good condition. Localized increased transparency in some of the thinly-painted black passages, a normal aging phenomenon, has led to areas of toning in the architecture on the far left. Two insignificant losses are found in the right half of the painting, while three minor horizontal dents are located in the sky, right of center. Wear along the bottom edge, probably due to contact with a frame, has been somewhat crudely toned. The aged varnish on this picture is markedly yellowed and very thick but still adequately saturates the paint. The glue-paste lining remains in a healthy state. Although this painting may be hung in its current state, cleaning is expected to noticeably improve the tonality and illusion of depth in this picture and allow the lively brushwork to shine.
"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."

This imagined riverside town is typical of the spirited and picturesque landscapes created early in the career of Michele Marieschi.  The artist includes celebrated and instantly recognizable edifices, such as Venice's Saint Mark's Basilica here, and places them side by side with fantasy buildings and crumbling ruins.  The artist is not bound by rules of perspective: the ruined columns and the tower overgrown with greenery are painted to a completely different scale than the houses directly opposite them on the other side of the river at right.  They dwarf the figures beneath them, who cross the bridge between the two sides.

The painting is comparable to a set of four capricci in a private collection, Switzerland, published by Federico Montecuccoli degli Erri and Filippo Pedrocco, which they date to around 1735.¹  The present painting is of slightly larger dimensions than the Swiss canvases and while the composition does not replicate any of those in the set, Marieschi has included some of the same buildings. One of the set similarly includes Saint Mark's Basilica, for example, and two of them appear to depict the same domed church with a columned facade, each from a different angle.

We are grateful to Charles Beddington for endorsing the attribution.

1. F. Montecuccoli degli Erri and F. Pedrocco, Michele Marieschi, La vita, l'ambiente, l'opera, Milan 1999, pp. 260-263, cat. nos. 41-44, reproduced.