GIUSEPPE GHERARDI | A SKETCH OF THE PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA, FLORENCE

This lively and luminous sketch by Giuseppe Gherardi records a view of the famed Piazza della Signoria in Florence. While some of the most famous landmarks, such as the Palazzo Vecchio at center and the Loggia della Signoria, have been recorded with nearly finished detail, the figures that fill the square are captured with quick and cursory brushstrokes so as to record a momentary impression, suggesting that Gherardi made this sketch in situ.  

Gherardi explored views of this square on a few occasions and in different media. In addition to the present example, which is oil on artists's board, a pen and ink drawing of the Piazza della Signoria is in the Art Institute of Chicago,¹ and a signed and dated oil on canvas from 1865 was sold at Sotheby's New York on 29 January 2009, lot 214.²

1. Inv. no. 1922.5698. Pen and black ink, brown and gray wash on cream wove paper, laid down on card, 30 by 41 cm. 

2. Oil on original canvas, 77 by 105 cm, signed and dated lower right G. Gherardi / 1865.