Ippolito Caffi

With Spanierman Gallery, New York;

From whom acquired by a private collector;

Thence by descent to the present collector.

Ippolito Caffi, one of Italy’s leading ottocento vedutisti, produced this luminous Venetian vista in 1854. Rendered as if standing in the Piazzetta of San Marco—with the Doge’s Palace at left and the Biblioteca Marciana at right—the composition captures both the charm and mystery of the Serenissima. As Canaletto’s artistic inheritor, Caffi modernized the genre of view painting by depicting novel vantages at unique moments of day and night.

Celebrated for his ability to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere, Caffi frames a central ship gliding across the cerulean lagoon between the columns of Saints Mark (crowned with a winged lion) and Todaro. Beyond, the belltower and cupola of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore are silhouetted against the early evening sky.