73. London: Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh, 1754.

Oil on canvas, 47 x 75.6 cm.

The National Gallery, London.

 

 

Painters came from all across Italy and Europe to experience this free and happy life of pleasure, charms and visual intoxication, thirsting after magical impressions and polychromatic harmony. Some, as they passed through, dedicated portraits worthy of their talent to the city, symbolizing on canvas the image of this Circe, this marcurigliosa Regina del mare. But the Venetians, above all, and also artists from Verona, Belluna, and Treviso, understood better than the forestieri how to lay down, with brilliance and sensitive emotional grandeur, the true traits of an incomparable idol. One had to be born in the very bosom of this delightful Isola Madre in order to fully experience it, to perceive all of its cradled tenderness and understand its exquisite languidness, the mannered, eloquent language of the architecture and all the delicate nuances of quivering lights against the multiplicity of its marble manifestations. How appearances change along the Canal grande! How many smiles are lit up on the basilica’s threshold and under the clock tower that leads to the Mercerial! What an exuberance of life and fine, nacreous colours on the unfinished façade of San Giovanni and Paolo, in front of the Scuola di San Marco, and with this equestrian monument, the most imposing in the world, that Verrocchio erected in memory of the male condottiere, Bartolomeo Colleoni of Bergamo!

 

All these reproduced, radiant visions, which were often reflected in the mirror of the canal’s waters, were sometimes deformed by ripples produced by the excited agitation of furrowed, zigzagging waves when gondolas passed on the water’s surface and gave Venice some unforgettable expressions whose masters of the palette made every effort to bring back to life all in the form of ghostly visions, changeable aspects, magical transparencies and supernatural landscapes that depicted an exclusive, unspeakable and dazzling splendour. How many Venetian painters and engravers, urban landscape artists at heart, even apart from Canaletto, Tiepolo and Guardi, were seeking to express all of the aesthetic facets of the city of the Doge, where they had made a vow to live and rejuvenate the artistic tradition of Bellini and Veronese? Too little is remembered, even today, of Domenico, Giuseppe Valeriani, Marco Ricci, Jacopo Marieschi, as well as Piranesi, who had such lively exuberance and such prodigious talent as an engraver, and Zaïz, Cimaroli, Carlevaris and Antonio Marini. Nevertheless, they all deserve high regard from art connoisseurs and the fervent admiration of a passionate elite of enthusiasts. Since Vittore Carpeccio, who preserved the image of fifteenth century Venice in the backgrounds of his compositions, and above all, since the last of the Vivarinis, the history of portraitists in the sovereign city of lagoons would certainly be interesting to write. With a specific focus on the effigies of this historical centre of commerce, the writing of this history has never been completely and perfectly carried out.