Francesco Guardi
Venetian, 1712–1793

View of San Giorgio Maggiore, 1760 ca.
Oil on canvas
28 5/16 x 47 1/2"

Glasgow Museums, Archibald McLellan Collection, purchased 1856
184

COMMENTS

Francesco Guardi was one of the most renowned veduta (view) painters in eighteenth-century Venice. He originally trained with his older brother, Giovanni Antonio, who produced large-scale religious altarpieces; from him Guardi learned his distinctive style of painting with fractured, broken brushwork. He later worked with the great veduta painter Canaletto (1697–1768); this association, which began just before the mid-eighteenth century, led Guardi to begin creating the evocative views of the city of Venice for which he is most famous today.

The practice of view painting emerged in Venice in the late seventeenth century and continued through the early nineteenth century—to some degree in response to the increasing popularity of the Grand Tour. Wealthy tourists were eager for souvenirs of their cultural journeys, and view paintings, which reached the height of their popularity during the mid-eighteenth century, were ideal for this purpose. Guardi was one of the prime creators of such views, and his expressive images of his native Venice beautifully evoke the watery, light-filled atmosphere of the city.

- Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums, Milwaukee Art Museum
http://mam.org/of-heaven-and-earth/biographies.php

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

This painting of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore (designed in the 16th century by the great architect Andrea Palladio), as seen across the water from St. Mark’s Square is a beautiful example of a Venetian “view” painting.

These “vedute,” picturesque views of Venice, were the specialty of Venice’s two greatest 18th-century painters, Canaletto and Guardi. Their paintings were avidly collected by the aristocratic British travelers who fell in love with Venice while on the cultural pilgrimage known as the Grand Tour.

Canaletto’s paintings were more popular with the Grand Tourists because they were crisp, clear and precise. Guardi’s are less literal and more atmospheric.

His interest in the effects of light refracting off water and his distinctively loose and sketchy brushstrokes – the paint often laid on in thick rich impasto – make his paintings look remarkably lively, fresh, and modern.

- Botticelli, Titian, and Beyond, 2015