Venetian School, 19th Century, View Of St Mark’s Square - View Of The San Marco Basin

Venetian school, 19th century
View of St Mark’s Square - View of the San Marco Basin
(2) Gouache on paper, cm 18 x 24.5
With frame, cm 27.5 x 36

While Vedutismo reached its peak in the eighteenth century with masters such as Canaletto, Bellotto and Guardi, the nineteenth century saw an evolution and a persistent influence of this pictorial genre in Venice. The depiction of iconic sights and famous monuments continued to be a popular subject among artists, fueling fascination for the city among collectors and travellers. The evocative and melancholy atmosphere typical of the lagoon intensified in the nineteenth century, influenced by the artistic ideals of the romantic movement: the vedutisti nineteenth emphasized, in fact, the emotional and poetic aspect of the city, Catching the elusive atmospheric effects and the games of radiating light of dawn or twilight of sunset.
The use of new pictorial techniques, such as watercolor, gouache and spot painting, allowed to translate immediately the visual impressions and atmosphere of the lagoon city.
The two views in question, a pair of gouaches on paper depicting respectively St Mark’s Square and the San Marco Basin, are related to the Venetian school of the nineteenth century, most likely to an artist who looks at the great Venetian vedutists of the nineteenth century: Vincenzo Chilone (Venice, 1758 - 1839), trained at the age of twenty in the workshop of Francesco Battaglioli, famous for his topographical precision and lively depiction of daily life in Venice; Carlo Grubacs (Venice 1802 - 1878), who attended the School of Fine Arts in Venice under the guidance of Teodoro Matteini, participating in numerous exhibitions.