Čís. položky 114


Luca Carlevarijs


Luca Carlevarijs - Obrazy starých mistrů I

(Udine 1663–1730 Venice)
A view of the Piazza San Marco looking north from the Piazzetta towards the clock tower, Venice, circa 1695–1698,
oil on canvas, 144.5 x 213 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly commissioned by Stefano Conti;
Private collection, England, until circa 1970;
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Bożena Anna Kowalcyzk for suggesting the attribution and for her help in cataloguing the present lot.

Carlevarijs was born in Udine in 1663 and arrived in Venice in 1679. In 1690 he appears in the Venetian register of the company of arts and trades, the Fraglia, (I. Favaro, L’arte dei pittori in Venezia e i suoi statuti, Florence 1975, p. 217). At this time, he was probably either in Rome or Tuscany, studying and training as an artist.

The first works attributed to Carlevarijs are two biblical scenes in the Church of San Pantalon in Venice, depicting Joseph sold by His Brothers and Moses drawing water from the rock, and the three large landscapes painted towards the end of the 17th century for Palazzo Zenobio, the residence of his principal patrons in the parish of Angelo Raffaele where they are still conserved today (A. Rizzi, Luca Carlevarijs, Venice 1967, pp. 23-24, 95, fig. 9-16).

His mathematical studies and interest in architecture created an interest in vedute (view painting) as an artistic genre in its own right, based on applying the rules of optics and perspective following the work of Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (1652/1653–1736). In 1703 he published the series of 103 prints (104 in the final edition), entitled Fabriche, e vedute di Venetia, printed by Giovanni Battista Finazzi, that he himself had drawn, put into perspective, and engraved. These etchings were the compositional basis of his works and they also became the indispensable repertoire of eighteenth-century Venetian painting of vedute that served as example and inspiration for Canaletto, Bellotto and Francesco Guardi.

Carlevarijs became an acclaimed painter of vedute, specialising in historical scenes and depictions of festivities; a tradition that had been brought to Venice by the Augsburg painter Joseph Heintz the Younger (circa 1600-1678) and popularised by both Grand Tourists and diplomats of the foreign missions to Venice. Carlevarijs’ taste for observation, evident in the imposing backdrop of Venetian architecture, detailed scenes of festivities and colourful figures drawn from life, common characteristics in his paintings, assured him success.

Carlevarijs’s first work dated work is The Reception of the French Ambassador De Charmont at the Doge’s Palace, Venice, now in a private collection (D. Succi, L’inedito ‘ingresso di un Ambasciatore di Francia in Palazzo Ducale’ di Luca Carlevarijs: nuovi interrogativi sui rapporti tra van Wittel e le origini del vedutismo a Venezia, in: Galleria Salamon, exhibition catalogue, 1991, Milan 1991, p. 5). The commissions from the nobleman Stefano Conti from Lucca, documented in 1706 are The Molo with the Libreria and the Zecca, looking towards the Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, now in the National Museum in Palazzo Mansi, Lucca and The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, in a private collection (see P. Betti, La collezione di Stefano Conti: un Lazzarini e due Carlevarijs ritrovati, in: Antichità Viva, XXXVII, 1997, pp. 28-43).

The present work was rediscovered almost contemporaneously with two pendant pieces both signed on the back of the canvas, dated 1700, in storage in the Hermitage State Museum, Saint Petersburg: Capriccio with Hercules Farnese and Capriccio with the Ponte di Rialto (see I. Artemieva, in: Venezia e San Pietroburgo. Artisti Principi e Mercanti, exhibition catalogue, ed. by I. Artemieva/A. Craievich, Venice 2018, pp. 23 and 170–171, nos. 1-15 and 1–16: ‘...e una città di marmo compressa tra anguste rive, e quella prospettiva Nevskij altrimenti Canal Grande’). The two capricci provide the first certain date in this corpus of works.

Bozena Anna Kowalczyk has suggested that the present painting should be dated to circa 1695-1698, earlier than the Hermitage paintings. A dating which coincides with Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli´s visit to Venice in 1695. Vanvitelli created ‘modern’ views of the city and created several standard compositions. His most famous view of Venice, The Molo and the Doge’s Palace from the Bacino di San Marco, Museo del Prado, Madrid, bears the date 1697 (G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel e l’origine della veduta settecentesca, new ed. revised by L. Laureati and L. Trezzani, Milan 1996, p. 240, no. 287), but several paintings are documented in Venice in the collection of Giorgio Bergonzi (L. Mattioli Rossi, Collezionismo e mercato dei vedutisti nella Venezia del Settecento, in: Ricerche di storia dell’arte, 11, 1980, p. 80).

The present composition includes impressive architectural structures, which are laid out like the wings of a theatre, Sansovino’s Libreria on the left and the Doge’s Palace on the right. This is typical of Carlevarijs’ manner of painting vedute and the present canvas already has the 2:3 ratio, between height and width, that the artist would use in his later works. The composition could be the prototype for the print, Piazza San Marco, looking towards the Bell Tower, from Fabriche, e vedute di Venetia (no. 46) (see fig. 1).

This compostion may be the third, hitherto unidentified painting commissioned by Stefano Conti (F. Zava Boccazzi, I veneti della Galleria Conti, in: Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’Arte, 17, 1990, p. 144).

The depiction of the architecture in the present composition appears to anticipate the artist’s later developments in perspective constructed using the camera obscura, together with a careful depiction of detail. The use of luminous greys, and the focus of the Torre dell’Orologio in the distance shows his typical attention to atmosphere. The sky is peculiar and is reminiscent of the work of Pieter Mulier, called il Cavalier Tempesta (1637-1701), who moved to Venice in 1687. The light sky of the horizon with vaporous white clouds contrasts with the dark grey clouds in the foreground. The figures are formed with the same technique and brushstrokes as those in his other works, including the two capricci in the Hermitage. The structure of these figures is a synthesis of various visual influences, from the Bamboccianti, genre painters active in seventeenth-century Rome to Jacques Callot, Jacob De Heusch and Johann Eismann.

Bożena Anna Kowalczyk considers the statue of the lion, the symbol of Saint Mark the Evangelist, on top of a column, as a form of signature.

22.10.2019 - 17:00

Dosažená cena: **
EUR 155.800,-
Odhadní cena:
EUR 150.000,- do EUR 200.000,-

Luca Carlevarijs


(Udine 1663–1730 Venice)
A view of the Piazza San Marco looking north from the Piazzetta towards the clock tower, Venice, circa 1695–1698,
oil on canvas, 144.5 x 213 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly commissioned by Stefano Conti;
Private collection, England, until circa 1970;
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Bożena Anna Kowalcyzk for suggesting the attribution and for her help in cataloguing the present lot.

Carlevarijs was born in Udine in 1663 and arrived in Venice in 1679. In 1690 he appears in the Venetian register of the company of arts and trades, the Fraglia, (I. Favaro, L’arte dei pittori in Venezia e i suoi statuti, Florence 1975, p. 217). At this time, he was probably either in Rome or Tuscany, studying and training as an artist.

The first works attributed to Carlevarijs are two biblical scenes in the Church of San Pantalon in Venice, depicting Joseph sold by His Brothers and Moses drawing water from the rock, and the three large landscapes painted towards the end of the 17th century for Palazzo Zenobio, the residence of his principal patrons in the parish of Angelo Raffaele where they are still conserved today (A. Rizzi, Luca Carlevarijs, Venice 1967, pp. 23-24, 95, fig. 9-16).

His mathematical studies and interest in architecture created an interest in vedute (view painting) as an artistic genre in its own right, based on applying the rules of optics and perspective following the work of Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (1652/1653–1736). In 1703 he published the series of 103 prints (104 in the final edition), entitled Fabriche, e vedute di Venetia, printed by Giovanni Battista Finazzi, that he himself had drawn, put into perspective, and engraved. These etchings were the compositional basis of his works and they also became the indispensable repertoire of eighteenth-century Venetian painting of vedute that served as example and inspiration for Canaletto, Bellotto and Francesco Guardi.

Carlevarijs became an acclaimed painter of vedute, specialising in historical scenes and depictions of festivities; a tradition that had been brought to Venice by the Augsburg painter Joseph Heintz the Younger (circa 1600-1678) and popularised by both Grand Tourists and diplomats of the foreign missions to Venice. Carlevarijs’ taste for observation, evident in the imposing backdrop of Venetian architecture, detailed scenes of festivities and colourful figures drawn from life, common characteristics in his paintings, assured him success.

Carlevarijs’s first work dated work is The Reception of the French Ambassador De Charmont at the Doge’s Palace, Venice, now in a private collection (D. Succi, L’inedito ‘ingresso di un Ambasciatore di Francia in Palazzo Ducale’ di Luca Carlevarijs: nuovi interrogativi sui rapporti tra van Wittel e le origini del vedutismo a Venezia, in: Galleria Salamon, exhibition catalogue, 1991, Milan 1991, p. 5). The commissions from the nobleman Stefano Conti from Lucca, documented in 1706 are The Molo with the Libreria and the Zecca, looking towards the Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, now in the National Museum in Palazzo Mansi, Lucca and The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, in a private collection (see P. Betti, La collezione di Stefano Conti: un Lazzarini e due Carlevarijs ritrovati, in: Antichità Viva, XXXVII, 1997, pp. 28-43).

The present work was rediscovered almost contemporaneously with two pendant pieces both signed on the back of the canvas, dated 1700, in storage in the Hermitage State Museum, Saint Petersburg: Capriccio with Hercules Farnese and Capriccio with the Ponte di Rialto (see I. Artemieva, in: Venezia e San Pietroburgo. Artisti Principi e Mercanti, exhibition catalogue, ed. by I. Artemieva/A. Craievich, Venice 2018, pp. 23 and 170–171, nos. 1-15 and 1–16: ‘...e una città di marmo compressa tra anguste rive, e quella prospettiva Nevskij altrimenti Canal Grande’). The two capricci provide the first certain date in this corpus of works.

Bozena Anna Kowalczyk has suggested that the present painting should be dated to circa 1695-1698, earlier than the Hermitage paintings. A dating which coincides with Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli´s visit to Venice in 1695. Vanvitelli created ‘modern’ views of the city and created several standard compositions. His most famous view of Venice, The Molo and the Doge’s Palace from the Bacino di San Marco, Museo del Prado, Madrid, bears the date 1697 (G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel e l’origine della veduta settecentesca, new ed. revised by L. Laureati and L. Trezzani, Milan 1996, p. 240, no. 287), but several paintings are documented in Venice in the collection of Giorgio Bergonzi (L. Mattioli Rossi, Collezionismo e mercato dei vedutisti nella Venezia del Settecento, in: Ricerche di storia dell’arte, 11, 1980, p. 80).

The present composition includes impressive architectural structures, which are laid out like the wings of a theatre, Sansovino’s Libreria on the left and the Doge’s Palace on the right. This is typical of Carlevarijs’ manner of painting vedute and the present canvas already has the 2:3 ratio, between height and width, that the artist would use in his later works. The composition could be the prototype for the print, Piazza San Marco, looking towards the Bell Tower, from Fabriche, e vedute di Venetia (no. 46) (see fig. 1).

This compostion may be the third, hitherto unidentified painting commissioned by Stefano Conti (F. Zava Boccazzi, I veneti della Galleria Conti, in: Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’Arte, 17, 1990, p. 144).

The depiction of the architecture in the present composition appears to anticipate the artist’s later developments in perspective constructed using the camera obscura, together with a careful depiction of detail. The use of luminous greys, and the focus of the Torre dell’Orologio in the distance shows his typical attention to atmosphere. The sky is peculiar and is reminiscent of the work of Pieter Mulier, called il Cavalier Tempesta (1637-1701), who moved to Venice in 1687. The light sky of the horizon with vaporous white clouds contrasts with the dark grey clouds in the foreground. The figures are formed with the same technique and brushstrokes as those in his other works, including the two capricci in the Hermitage. The structure of these figures is a synthesis of various visual influences, from the Bamboccianti, genre painters active in seventeenth-century Rome to Jacques Callot, Jacob De Heusch and Johann Eismann.

Bożena Anna Kowalczyk considers the statue of the lion, the symbol of Saint Mark the Evangelist, on top of a column, as a form of signature.


Horká linka kupujících Po-Pá: 10.00 - 17.00
old.masters@dorotheum.at

+43 1 515 60 403
Aukce: Obrazy starých mistrů I
Typ aukce: Salónní aukce
Datum: 22.10.2019 - 17:00
Místo konání aukce: Wien | Palais Dorotheum
Prohlídka: 12.10. - 22.10.2019


** Kupní cena vč. poplatku kupujícího a DPH

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