(Venice 1652/1665–1727 Rome)
The Battaglia dei Pugni on the bridge of San Barnaba, Venice,
oil on canvas, 89 x 129 cm, framed

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

The present unpublished view of Venice, which represents one of the greatest annual events of the city with a vivacious narrative and a dazzling chromaticism, is a painting by Alessandro Piazza.

The present composition depicts the War of Fists between the Castellani and the Nicoletti which, up to 1705, took place several times in the same year and on different bridges of the city, the most famous of which was that of San Barnaba. The rivalry between the two groups recalls the conflicts between Iesolo and Eraclea before the foundation of Venice, when the populations of the two cities escaped the invasions by taking refuge and establishing themselves in different areas of the lagoon. It was in this way that the Castellani formed the sestieri di Castello San Marco and Dorsoduro, while the Nicoletti those of San Paolo, Santa Croce and Canareggio. The conflicts continued for centuries in various ways; the most violent amongst these were the ones that took place on the bridges. In these battles, the Venetians would fight over the bridge until ownership was established and signboards indicating the winners would be hung upon it. On the day of the battle, the two teams would arrive escorted by bands of musicians and align themselves on the opposite sides of the bridge. The canal would be crowded with boats while other spectators would look out from the windows or the roofs of their houses. Although the fighters would use merely canes and sticks, the number of wounded and dead people became so high that in 1574, the Senate, was forced to ban all weapons and arms during the battles; instead only punching was allowed. The conflicts, nevertheless, continued to be violent, so in 1705 the government had to intervene once more, this time more drastically, prohibiting any form of crowding on the bridges; the penalty consisted of five years of rowing in prison with chains at one’s feet or seven years of ‘dark prison’.

The ban imposed in 1705 can be considered an ante quem in dating the present painting by Piazza, for it allows us to assign it to the very beginning of the eighteenth century. The style of painting of the work also confirms this chronological attribution for it appears, in many aspects, similar to other views dated to the beginning of the century.

The present painting confirms Alessandro Piazza’s success as official painter of great Venetian events. Succi compares this work and its pendant (see lot 98) to a pair of large sized paintings by Piazza depicting the same subjects in a private collection, as well as to other works of a series of four by the artist, depicting carnival celebrations, ‘Svolo’ of the colombina in the Piazzetta and The hunt of the bulls at Campo Santo Stefano, this last one dated and signed on the façade of the parsonage (see D. Succi, Luca Carlevarijs, Gorizia 2015, pp. 45-47, fig. 35–36).

Piazza was a member of the Fraglia of Venetian painters between 1691 and 1700 (see E. Favaro, L’Arte dei pittori in Venezia e I suoi statuti, Florence 1975, p. 176), and during this time he worked almost exclusively on the series of seven artworks in the Museo Correr in Venice, one of which (The triumphant return to Venice of Francesco Morosini) was signed ‘Alessandro Piazza F’. Created at the end of the eighteenth century for the Palazzo Morosini in Santo Stefano, the series illustrated the fortunes of Francesco Morosini, also called the ‘Peloponnesiaco’, who held the Dogado of Venice between 1688 and 1694 and achieved victory and glory as commander of the Serenissima fleet during the Morean War. In the first years of the eighteenth century, Piazza also realised another important series of four large paintings, now held at the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, two of which are dated 1700 (The basin of San Marco on Ascension day) and 1702 (Show at the Grimani Theatre); the other two portray the Ridotto and the Regata in front of the Dogana.

Piazza moved to Rome in the beginning of the 1700s and by the end of the century, he had already acquired great fame as an artist and was receiving commissions of some importance. Amongst his first commissions, one painting stands out: The Ceremony of the Possesso of Clemente XI painted on November 20, 1700, after the papal election of Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Albani. The painting was sold at auction in 2016 (Dorotheum, Vienna, 10 October 2016, lot 108).