(Augsburg circa 1600–1678 Venice)
The Rialto Bridge with a Doge’s procession on the Grand Canal, Venice,
oil on canvas, 106.5 x 142.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
art market, Italy;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Bożena Anna Kowalczyk for endorsing the attribution of the present painting and for her help in cataloguing the present lot.

We are also grateful to Dario Succi for independently endorsing the attribution.

The German painter Joseph Heintz the Younger was the first Venetian view painter, vedutista, who was to influence a whole genre of painting. The elegance and variety of the figures that crowd his grandiose Venetian scenes, depicted during a celebration, was to directly influence Luca Carlevarijs amongst others.

The artist received his initial training from his father, Joseph Heintz the Elder (1564–1609) a refined painter of figures and an exponent of International Mannerism in Augsburg and Prague where the elder artist was court portraitist to Rudolph II. In 1625, Joseph Heintz the Younger is documented both in Rome and Venice in the service of the Venetian statesman Francesco Corner, for whom he painted a series of large canvases representing ceremonies and celebrations set against the monumental topography of Venice. These are conserved in the Museo Correr, Venice. Heintz settled in Venice where he remained for the rest of his life, creating an individualised vision of the city and its festivals and celebrations. He was also a painter of witches’ sabbaths, battle scenes and history paintings, as well as religious works. His Miracle of Saint Andrew’s Mule in the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo of 1670 is distinguished by its grandiose architectural fantasy setting, inspired by Piazza Navona.

The present painting represents one his most celebrated subjects showing the procession of a Doge’s retinue, which, having departed Saint Mark’s is about to go under the Ponte di Rialto. The bridge was built between 1588 and 1592 to the designs of the Venetian, Antonio da Ponte, thereby connecting the two sides of the Canale Grande: the Riva del Vin to the left and the Riva del Carbon on the right. The Doge’s vessel leads the way, recognisable by the ducal umbrella at the prow and the relief of the Lion of Saint Mark at the stern. It is followed by the ceremonial boats and gondolas of ambassadors. Beyond the bridge, three windows of the upper story of the Renaissance Palazzo dei Camerlenghi can be seen on the left, and one of the towers of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi emerges to the right. The figures, with their carefully described costumes, going about their daily business, are reminiscent of Jacques Callot. The birds-eye view perspective, and the bright palette, which includes an ample use of crimson, are typical of the artist’s modus operandi and allow this work, which is amongst his most iconic paintings, to be added to his catalogue of works.

This subject is represented in a second canvas now in the Galleria Estense, Modena, which has a slightly differing point of perspective, consequent changes in architectural detail and a different arrangement of the figures – much as in the case of another fascinating subject, the Lotta dei Pugni which is also known in two versions: one set on the bridge of Santa Fosca (private collection) and the other on that of San Barnaba (Alte Pinakothek, Munich). The painting here under discussion is with every certainty the first of the two versions of the present subject to have been executed. The disordered crowding of the shipping on the Grand Canal is more lively and spontaneous, while in the Modena canvas, which is much larger (123 x 228 cm) and was for many years thought to be by the young Luca Carlevarijs, the processional retinue is more orderly, while the architecture of the Rialto Bridge is described in every detail and four of the arched windows of the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi are visible. Moreover, the lighting differs in the two paintings: in the present painting it is more delicate with the distant luminescence of the setting sun framed in the arch of the bridge and expanding into the sky, while in the other work it is more dramatic.