FRANCESCO GUARDI

(Venice, 1712 - 1793) Capriccio Oil on canvas, 42.5X33.2 cm The painting, of high quality, beautiful conservation and in first canvas, was traced to Francesco Guardi's catalog by Enrico Lucchese. The scholar first of all emphasizes its very fine execution, conducted with elegant veiling chromatic transparencies, delicate luminous passages and a singular lightness of touch. A conduction that allows the artist to happily combine the fantastical genre of capriccio according to the lagoon tradition of Marco Ricci and Canaletto, with the so-called scenes of daily life exemplified here by lively blotchy figures, built on the tip of the brush and skillful tonal balances of light and shadow (Cf. Marini in Passion and Commerce. Art in Venice in the 17th and 18th centuries, exhibition catalog edited by A. Butí, M. Mansanet, X. Barral i Altet, Barcelona 2007, p. 268). The scenic space is also typical, with a monumental portico leading to a courtyard where a staircase and the portion of a sumptuous palace decorated with rocaille motifs on which a sundial stands out. This procession toward the backdrop is punctuated by figures, and the overall impression denotes a refined orchestration based on the graphic study of themes and situations that, once decontextualized, are vitalized in forms as novel as they are ephemeral. In this regard, the best references are the drawings preserved at the Correr Museum and depicting the Golden Staircase of the Doge's Palace, the Clock Arch dif[ront]e la Lozetta at St. Mark's as titled at the bottom by Francesco himself, and the Architectural Capriccio at the Cini Foundation (fig. 1). Sheets documenting the actual architectural excerpts that inspired the set design of the painting under consideration, in which we perceive a similar use of spots and sudden openings of light, also found in other similar and autograph pictorial versions (Cf. A. Morassi, Guardi. Antonio and Francesco Guardi, Venice 1973, pp. 455-461, nn. 782-815; D. Succi, Francesco Guardi. Catalogo dei dipinti e disegni inediti, II, Milan 2021, pp. 216-226, nn. 301-315). The painting is accompanied by a critical file by Enrico Lucchese. Reference bibliography: A. Morassi, Guardi. All the drawings of Antonio, Francesco and Giacomo Guardi, Venice 1975, p. 175, cat. 559 F. Pedrocco, in Guardi. Metamorphosis of the Image. Critical Problems for Antonio, Francesco and Giacomo, exhibition catalog (Gorizia, Civico Museo del Castello), Gorizia 1987, pp. 254-255 A. Bettagno, in Francesco Guardi. Vedute, Capricci, Feste, exhibition catalog edited by A. Bettagno (Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini), Milan 1993, pp. 54-55