A Canaletto returned to its original setting, unfortunately just for a few weeks

A work by Canaletto is about to return for 50 days (from November, 10 until December, 27,  24 hours a day) in the place where it was conceived for by the author. “The entrance to the Grand Canal from the Basilica della Salute” is back to the Abbazia di San Gregorio, Venice.

 

From the porch of the abbey, between 1740 and 1745, Canaletto, with the help of the optical chamber, drew the precise lines then transposed on the famous painting (from the collection of Lady Lucas and Dingwall, the canvas went on auction at Sotheby’s London in 1970, April 8 n.9, and now belongs to the private collection Terruzzi).

 

Looking at the piece, the visitor can see the pattern that the author took from reality: an object based work that faithfully shows the basilica of white marble created by the architect Baldassarre Longhena (as a votive offering to the health of the city after yet another plague); then the salt warehouses and the farther Punta della Dogana. On the other side of the Grand Canal, Doge’s Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni.

 

A detailed depiction of the Riva degli Schiavoni is on display now in another show at the Szépmuvészeti Muzeum in Budapest (until February 16): “The Molo towards the Riva degli Schiavoni” (ca. 1738), also by Canaletto, will be supported by 141 other works from the most important museums in the world for an exhibition on Italian painting of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

 

Speaking of this artist, there is also an interesting market news: two paintings by Canaletto that have been owned by a succession of bankers are estimated to sell for as much as 12 million pounds ($19.5 million) on auction. The identically-sized views of the St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge in Venice, dating from between 1738 and 1742, have been entered as one lot by HSBC Holdings Plc’s (HSBA) corporate art collection into Sotheby’s December 4 Old Masters sale in London.

 

The fortune of Canaletto is always on the rise. His work was the highlight of Old Master & British Painting sale at Christie’s on July, 2 2013: the painting “The Molo, Venice, from the Bacino di San Marco” (1697-1768) was  sold for £8.5m.

 

Last, but not least, a further purchase of a Canaletto by The Getty Museum in Los Angeles demonstrates the evergreen charm of this artist.

July 15, 2015