(Venice 1652/1665–1727 Rome)
The Battaglia dei Pugni on the bridge of San Barnaba, Venice,
oil on canvas, 163 x 232 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Dario Succi for suggesting the attribution of the present painting.

This unpublished view of Venice depicts with vivid realism and a strikingly rich palette one of the most significant annual events in the Venetian calendar. It is the work of Alessandro Piazza, an artist who can be identified as the natural heir to Joseph Heintz the Younger (circa 1600–1678). He began his career in Venice and subsequently attained affirmation in Rome as one of the most celebrated painters of ceremonial and commemorative events. Inscribed in the Fraglia (or guild) of painters in Venice for the years 1691–1700 (see E. Favaro, L’arte dei pittori Veneziani e i suoi statuti, Florence 1975, p. 176), Alessandro Piazza’s production has been associated almost entirely to the series of seven paintings in the Museo Correr, Venice, one of which is signed ‘Alessandro Piazza F’ (Il ritorno di Francesco Morosini dal Levante, Cl. I Nr. 1381).

Following his move to Rome in the early years of the eighteenth century, the artist achieved success within a decade thanks to the prominence of his patronage. Among his first commissions of importance was The Ceremony of the Possesso of Clemente XI (Private collection) depicting the ceremony of the papal election of Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Albani which took place on 20 November 1700. Another two important paintings date to about the same time and are now in the Museo di Roma: these canvases were executed for the Barberini family and represent the mission of Cardinal Carlo Barberini to Naples as legate to Philipp V of Spain in 1702, one of which, entitled Il ritorno del Cardinale Barberini al Quirinale, is signed and dated 1710 (see Bollettino dei Musei Comunali di Roma, Anno VI, 1959, p. 53).

The present painting depicts the Battaglia dei pugni (or ‘fist fight’) between the Castellani and the Nicoletti, which, until 1705, took place in Venice several times a year on various of the city bridges, among which the most contested, was that of San Barnaba. The rivalry between the two groups dated back to animosity between the people of Iesolo and Eraclea, from before the foundation of Venice, when the populations of the two cities sought refuge from invaders in the lagoon, establishing their territorial footholds in different districts, the Castellani establishing the sestieri (or districts) of Castello, San Marco and Dorsoduro, while the Nicoletti created those of San Polo, Santa Croce and Canareggio. Their rivalry was perpetuated over the centuries and expressed in many ways, among which the most punishing was the battles on the bridges. The prize for winning the battle was possession of the bridge and marking it with the insignia of the winning faction. The preparations for each conflict were painstaking: first a public challenge would be made, as in cavalry tournaments, next the canal was excavated so as to avoid wounding combatants falling into the water. On the day of the battle the two teams would arrive accompanied by musicians and line up along the opposite banks of the bridge. The canal would be filled with the boats of spectators while others watched from the windows and rooftops of the surrounding houses. The combatants used sticks and canes and the numbers of those injured or killed were such that in 1574, the Senate was forced to intervene. From then on only fist fights, without weapons or armour, were permitted. Despite this, the conflicts continued to be so violent that in 1705, the authorities had to intervene once more, prohibiting any gathering on the bridges with a punishment attached of either five years as a rower in stocks [‘coi ferri ai piedi’] aboard galley ships, or seven years in a ‘prigione scura’ [‘dark prison’]. The abolition of the practice in 1705 provides a terminus ante quem for the dating of the Battaglia dei pugni here under discussion, and points to a date in the earliest years of the eighteenth century. The stylistic traits of the composition further confirm this chronological placement.