Provenance: Italico Brass Collection, 1937.
In the first tourist guides written for travellers visiting Italy, it was recommended that those wishing to experience the pleasures of folklore and...
read moreProvenance: Italico Brass Collection, 1937.
In the first tourist guides written for travellers visiting Italy, it was recommended that those wishing to experience the pleasures of folklore and celebrations should head straight for Venice. A favourite of travellers, the carnival and the regatta were undoubtedly the preferred subjects of the vedutist painters, such as Giuseppe Bernardo Bison, who thus celebrated the Venetian frenzy through their astonishing paintings.
In the first of these two admirable canvases by Giuseppe Bernardo Bison, we are invited to join the crowd gathered on Piazza San Marco to celebrate the last day of the carnival. While Shrove Tuesday is celebrated on Campo Santo Stefano, all the carnival festivities take place on Piazza San Marco, making this the place for profane entertainment. Reproducing this fabulous open-air theatre of Venetian festivals provides the painter with an opportunity to demonstrate his great perspective skills, which he learnt by studying Canaletto’s views in an academic manner. In this canvas, we can enjoy all the effervescence that reigns in Venice during the festivities: the participants proudly sport splendid masks and costumes, bands of musicians play gaily, a small scene presented on a platform attracts passers-by, and acrobats fill the centre of the square for an acrobatic number.
At the same time as bringing some of the greatest hours of the Serenissima back to life through his paintings, Bison seizes the opportunity to express all his talent as a colourist. While the carnival is in full swing, the boats of the lagoon’s entire aristocracy confront each other on the Grand Canal, in front of the Punta della Dogana and Church of Santa Maria della Salute. Bison’s touch is thoroughly charming here thanks to his particularly vibrant colours. The last day of the carnival on Piazza San Marco and The Regatta at the Punta della Dogana clearly reveal the accomplishment of the artist’s studies of colour. Here, he clearly stands out from his predecessors through a firm and confident ‘macchia’. The atmosphere of these places is bathed in a clear, golden light, which allows us to appreciate all the sensitivity and poetry that emanate from the walls of the city of the Doges. Golden highlights animate the facades and the architectural details stand out even more precisely thanks to contrasting lighting effects. The marvellous blue sky brings a new grandeur to these spaces. The pearly, pastel tones used by the artist help to increase the romantic atmosphere particular to this period.
Between his perfect control of perspective, the appropriateness of the colours and the fantasy element of the subject, these are two of the most important paintings of Bison’s entire oeuvre.
Our sincere thanks to Mr. Fabrizio Magani who provided us with essential answers to this research.
Palmanova 1762 - Milan 1844
Born in Palmanova in Friuli in 1762, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison occupies a special place among the painters who prolonged the vedutist tradition at the turn of the 18th...
read morePalmanova 1762 - Milan 1844
Born in Palmanova in Friuli in 1762, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison occupies a special place among the painters who prolonged the vedutist tradition at the turn of the 18th century. An eclectic and versatile artist, he also left behind an important oeuvre as a painter and decorator, following in the prestigious footsteps of Tiepolo, Guardi, Ricci, Zaïs and Diziani: numerous palaces and villas in Ferrara, Padua, Treviso, Udine, Trieste and the surrounding areas bear witness to his ability as a fresco artist. Essentially dedicating himself to topographical veduta in his easel paintings, he nevertheless dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including fantasy. Other than these two aspects of his art, he produced an impressive number of graphic works.
In 1831, he settled in Milan and from 1834 to 1838, he made a series of journeys which took him successively to Florence, Rome, Naples and Paestum, thus broadening his vedutist repertoire.
As regards his protean body of work, we should emphasise – besides the variety of subjects – the extreme quality of his pictorial production, making him one of the most worthy epigones of the Venetian vedutist tradition in the 18th century.
