(Palmanova 1762–1844 Milan)
Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, under the snow,
tempera on paper, 14.6 x 20 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Fabrizio Magani for confirming the attribution of the present painting.

This composition includes the church of Santa Maria della Salute, the corner of the Dogana, and on the opposite side of the Grand Canal, the buildings of the Zecca, the Libreria Marciana and the Doge’s Palace, and in the distance the Bacino di San Marco. The white light of the snow merges with the transparent pale blue light of the sky; the clarity of the image is accompanied by an entirely personal interpretation of a snowy day capturing the originality the artists interpretation of eighteenth-century Venice.

Similar views are to be found in the repertoire of Venetians in the early nineteenth century, explaining the reasons for the emergence of an ‘emotional’ vedutismo that expresses itself in the atmospheric impression. Bison resolves the contrast between the direct study of places and the imaginative. A calm, diffuse clarity, which tends to crystallise the effects of light, comes into complete focus in spaces that are dilated and controlled by the skilful direction of the composition.

As one of the last exponents of the grand epoch of eighteenth-century Venetian painting, Bison enchants with the unmistakable liveliness of his style. In 1831 the artist moved to Milan, where he was supported by the engineer, Raffaello Tosoni di Cetona. Bison received an invitation to exhibit at the Brera in 1832, and his work was introduced to the public for the first time. It was in Milan that Bison gave up producing mural decorations and dedicated himself to painting genre works, veduti and landscapes.