Francesco Guardi

During the 1750s Francesco began to paint scenes from contemporary Venetian life, notably depictions of the casinos (ridotti) and similar scenes which show Venetian society, often in masks, flirting and gambling such as Il Ridotto and Il Parlatorio (Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice). Upon the death of Antonio in 1760, Francesco turns to the painting of vedute to make his living. He may have received some instruction from Canaletto whose compositions he sometimes copied. What are generally considered to be Guardi’s earliest views are quite different from his later work. They are painted smoothly in a pale, limpid palette and often portray views of calm, open water such as the Lagoon or the Giudecca Canal.  Like Canaletto, he found immediate success with both English and French milordi, making the Grand Tour, having established his reputation with a pair of large views of each side of the Rialto Bridge. Guardi painted on a variety of scales from small cabinet pictures among them the haunting Gondolas in the Lagoon (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan) to such glittering showpieces as the Departure of the Bucintoro (musée du Louvre, Paris). Because of his propensity for a less sunny palette, Guardi has sometimes been seen as a melancholic artist whose works presage the decline and fall of the Republic. However, although one might say that many of his works are indeed painted in the minor key, his bright silvery palette and enthusiasm for Venetian pageantry suggest that a more upbeat mind is often at work. Guardi was a technically versatile artist who enjoyed taking any opportunity to distort perspective for dramatic effect in a way Canaletto rarely did, as we can see in his numerous views of the Piazza San Marco.

In addition to views of Venice, Guardi painted many imaginary scenes of figures with dilapidated architecture, usually on some island in the Lagoon. These Capricci were painted on both a large and small scale. He also painted dramatic single events, most famously the Fire at San Marcuola (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich) as well as a series of portraits of villas on the mainland such as the Villa Loredan (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).