1293 - 18TH-CENTURY VENETIAN PAINTER

18TH-CENTURY VENETIAN PAINTER Campo Santo Stefano Campo San Polo Pair of oil-on-canvas paintings, 50x74 cm These two views, rare among Venetian cityscapes, depict two Venetian “campi” or squares: Campo Santo Stefano and Campo San Polo. The first view is associated with an engraving by Michele Marieschi that is part of a series of 43 views of Venice created by Marco Sebastiano Giampiccoli and later compiled, in varying numbers of sheets, into volumes titled “COLLECTION OF THE MAIN VIEWS OF THE CITY OF VENICE.” Twenty-one of these views are based on compositions by Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, three are original compositions by Marco Sebastiano Giampiccoli himself, while the remaining nineteen are based on works by six other artists or “peintre graveurs.” The second, depicting Campo San Polo, is based on an engraving by Antonio Visentini printed in Venice by Pasquali in 1742: “Platea S. Pauli Privatis Aedibus ornata.” The engraving, in turn, is based on a painting by Canaletto with the same subject, now in a private collection. The artist is a follower of Canaletto’s style, from which he draws his beautiful figures, rendered with great ease.