Pittore Italiano del XVIII/XIX secolo - Antonio Visentini (1688-1782) [Followers] - Capriccio Architettonico con rovine e figure

\Artist: Pittore Italiano del XVIII/XIX secolo - Antonio Visentini (1688-1782) [Followers]
Technique: olio su tela, cm. 67 x 85\Signature: Not signed\Dimensions: 95_12_113_cm
Italian painter of the 18th-19th century. Antonio Visentini (Venice, 1688-1782) [Followers] “Capriccio Architettonico con rovine e figure”. Oil on canvas, cm 67 x 85 - not signed. Frame size: cm 85 x 103 x 6 cm approx. NOTES: The work is not signed. Certificate of lawful origin. Work with gilded frame (with flaws) . “. . . An old painting of good quality depicting a classic of the 18th-century Italian painting, in particular in Venice, based on the representation of views in which real and invented landscape elements are combined with apparent topographic accuracy in expert scenery effects. In our case, this is an architectural “capriccio” with figures, which represents either totally imaginary landscapes or landscapes consisting of real elements but taken from different places (such as: Marco Ricci, Giuseppe Zais, Francesco Zuccarelli, Bernardo Bellotto) thus being more picturesque and theatrical. This pleasant architectural “capriccio” can be (probably) included in the genre of architectural “capricci” of Veneto area in the second half of the eighteenth century. In the eighteenth century, Venice experienced a second “golden age” in the artistic and cultural field. The city underwent a radical change, acquiring that appearance that it mostly maintains still today. In this century, a pictorial genre became popular, one that had been occasionally practiced by local artists until then: landscape painting. Painters represented the more or less known aspects of this lagoon city to meet the needs of aristocratic families, nobles (especially English and German but also French) who visited the city during their “voyage d’Italie” (Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples) , and those who, although they had never been to Venice, wanted to decorate their houses with weekday or holiday views of the Serenissima. Together with the great protagonists of this extraordinary Venetian painting season (such as: Canaletto, Luca Carlevarijs, Bernardo Bellotto, Francesco Guardi, and Michele Marieschi) there were also minor painters, also capable of making works of great charm and quality: Gaspar Van Wittel (Gaspare Vanvitelli) , Johann (Giovanni) Richter, Bernardo Canal, Antonio Stom, Antonio Visentini, Francesco Battaglioli, Giovan Battista (Giambattista) Cimaroli, Appollonio Domenichini, Francesco Albotto, Gabriel Bella, Francesco Tironi, Giacomo Guardi, Vincenzo Chilone, Gianfrancesco Costa, and Giuseppe Bernardino Bison. Thanks to aspects such as the composition of architectures in ruins, combined with the perspective construction with a scene depth, animated by small and long-limbed figures as well as by a particular game of colours, we can bring their authorship closer to a painter who looked on the style of Antonio Visentini (Venice, 1688-1782) , so a probable attribution to one of his followers cannot be excluded. The artist seems to be a specialist in the genre of ruins with architectures, where his production falls within that painting fashion of imaginary buildings, colonnades, arches, porches, and fantasy architectures with an “interpretative style aimed at delicately Arcadian tones. . . with a palette free of straining and violent colours, with prevailing greenish-light blue shades, sometimes tending to yellow, with strokes harmonised by uniform chiaroscuro effects”. Antonio Visentini trained with Pellegrini. However, he preferred architecture studies, also turning successfully to the art of engraving, masterfully expressing the views of Canaletto and the creations of Marco Ricci. The artist’s corpus is quite scanty and oriented to the “capriccio” genre, but in this regard it’s curious to note how the least investigated aspect of his production is precisely the pictorial activity, which he had early undertaken. His production unravels between the end of the third decade and the seventh decade, and, skimming through the catalogue, you can see the evolution of research dedicated to the 18th-century Veneto building classicism, which had its key character in the dynamic personality of Joseph Smith, and precisely in his capacity as a client. The canvasses show the ideal tension that Visentini embodied beyond the examples of Canaletto’s landscape painting. “. . . In the variegated panorama of the 18th-century Venetian painting, within the individual genres, “capriccio” acquires all the nuances of the classes constituted a posteriori in an attempt to classify, to put a label on the impetuous flow of images of a kaleidoscopic reality. The latter, making use of elements that are always consistent, is constantly renewed, forcing us on the quicksand of interpretation, dated in all its inflections. (Annalia Delneri) . . . ”. Artwork preserved in fair condition. The pictorial film seems to be uncovered (in some places) with several small restorations. The work was purchased from an important Italian auction house, and therefore it has a certificate of lawful origin. Canvas size: cm 67 x 85. The painting is for sale with a golden frame (with defects) . ORIGIN: private collection. PUBLICATION: \tunpublished. \t“I MITI E IL TERRITORIO nella Sicilia dalle mille culture”. INEDITA QUADRERIA general catalogue of paintings from the collection of the series “I Miti e il territorio”, publisher Lab_04, Marsala (printing in progress in 2021) . The painting is complete with frame (to be considered free of charge) . Also guaranteed: accurate packaging with wooden crate outside and bubble wrap / cardboard / polystyrene inside (packaging cost approx. €100. 00/150. 00) and trackable shipping (€50. 00/€100) . For export, the work is subject to a request for a Certificate of Free Circulation (European Community) or an Export Certificate (transport to non-EU countries) at the export office (Territorial Superintendency) with additional times and costs (€200/€400, all inclusive: shipping, packaging, and export documents) .