Michele Marieschi

Provenance

Finborough Hall, Suffolk, Heirloom no. 2 ;
Sir Clavering Fison, Sutton Hall, Sutton, Suffolk, by whom thought to have been purchased from Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, in the 1930s;
...

Provenance

Finborough Hall, Suffolk, Heirloom no. 2 ;
Sir Clavering Fison, Sutton Hall, Sutton, Suffolk, by whom thought to have been purchased from Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, in the 1930s;
Thence by descent to Mrs. Arnoud Waller-Fison;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 79;
With Richard Green Fine Paintings, London;
Private collection.

The great city of Venice, the mythical city of the Doges, was a favourite subject of the 18^th century vedute painters. Its Grand Canal, which snakes through the city in the shape of a backwards "S ", currently extends from Saint Mark’s Basin up to the Santa Lucia Railway Station. Its banks are home to numerous palaces whose magnificent architecture provided the vedute artists with such challenges in perspective rendering. With this View of St. Mark’s Basin Michele Marieschi presents an intensely colourful vision of the Serenissima.

The 18^th-century painters of Venice enjoyed resounding success among a highly specific clientele. In fact, the visitors who travelled there from England on their grand tour became the first enthusiasts for these views. Like Canaletto, Marieschi benefited from this demand and with virtuoso skill he created the "postcards" of his day. His repertoire naturally included the view of the Molo, a crucial destination on the Venetian circuit. In this panoramic view, one can easily discern the architectural jewel of the city and icon of Venetian Gothic: the Palace of the Doges, as well as the Library of Jacopo Sansovino, the Piazzetta that leads from the basin to St. Mark’s Square, the twin columns of Saint Theodore and Saint Mark, and the campanile that dates from the ninth century, making up the instantly recognisable profile of the once staggeringly wealthy city.

The repertoire of Michele Marieschi became more widely distributed from 1741 onwards, when he published a collection of 22 views entitled "Magnificentores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus". However, unlike Canaletto’s collection dating from 1735 engraved by Antonio Visentini, there is a striking difference between his engraved compositions and his paintings. As in the View of St. Mark’s Basin at the Philadelphia Museum of Art[1], Marieschi chooses a wide-angle view and arranges small boats in the foreground so that we see the Doge’s barge moored in front of the palace. Here and there, small figures accent the surface of the lagoon with their colourful clothing. And it is this painterly manner typical of Marieschi, both energetic and highly contrasted, sustained by expressive contrasts in light, that heightens the underlying tension of the composition. What makes this artist unique is certainly his taste for unusual points of view, of which this composition is a good example. Combining the vestiges of a glorious past and pre-romantic composition, the artist deeply imbues the time-yellowed façades with all of the nostalgic poetry of his art. 

[1] Michele Marieschi, View of Saint Mark’s Basin, c. 1735-1740, oil on canvas, 60,2 x 113 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

1710 - Venice - 1743

Relatively little is known about the training and the career of this Venetian painter of architecture and perspectives, who like Canaletto and Bellotto specialised in...