(Udine 1663–1730 Venice)
The Piazzetta, Venice, seen from the Molo,
oil on canvas, 93 x 131 cm, framed

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for confirming the attribution after examining the painting in the original.

According to Aikema this hitherto unpublished canvas is a fine work by Luca Carlevarijs. The painter, who originated from the Friulan capital Udine, came to Venice at a young age. His first dated work of 1708 is a series of more than 100 prints showing the monuments of Venice; an epochal cycle which marks the beginning of the interest for vedutismo. Carlevarijs’ painted vedute were strongly influenced by Netherlandish painting, not just Gaspare Vanvitelli (Gaspar van Wittel), who is usually considered as the founder of such view-painting in Italy, but also by Dutch late XVIIth-century Italianate painters such as Jan Asselijn, Jan Baptist Weenix, and, specifically, Johannes Lingelbach. Carlevarijs is the first viewpainter of Settecento Venice, and great forerunner of Canaletto.

The present picture shows one of Carlevarijs’ favourite views: The Piazzetta, seen from the Molo, towards Saint Mark’s. The stage is set by the two large columns of San Todaro and San Marco. On the right looms the broad front of the Ducal Palace, with the side façade of Saint Mark’s basilica further to the back. On the left, the view is closed by the classicizing façade of Sansovino’s library. In all known versions of this traditionally famous view (San Diego, Timken Art Museum, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art) Carlevarijs took a position slightly towards the left on the Piazzetta. In the present picture, he moved his viewpoint even further towards the left; indeed, Saint Mark’s is only partially visible, whereas the Torre dell’Orologio, which closes Saint Mark’s Square on the far side and appears in the back of all other versions, is hidden behind the protruding corner of the Library, in the foreground. As such, the present composition is a novel variant of the theme.

It is notoriously difficult to date Carlevarijs’ vedute, but the light, blond overall tonality, the lively figures moving freely around the square and the relatively loose brushwork seem to indicate that the present painting originates from the artist’s maturity, that is to say the second or even the third decade of the eighteenth century.

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for cataloguing this lot.