[...] The unsettled, dreamlike atmosphere that characterises both paintings, distinguished by their dark-grey ground that determines the palette and the strong chiaroscuro effect of the images, can be attributed in its entirety to Guardi. 

These two paintings are particularly interesting examples of the love of ruins and the capriccio in the work of Francesco Guardi, one of the greatest 18th-century landscape artists. In the first painting, an elegantly dressed couple is about to step through a doorway that seems to lead into a courtyard with a statue of Minerva, clearly recognisable by her attributes: armour, shield and lance. In its pendant piece, some figures seen from behind are occupied in front of a large ruined arch, an element of a former portico, while in the background we can glimpse a pale arch with a broken tympanum. Both paintings are constructed with skilful use of light: in the first case, a silvery, lunar light illuminates the figures and makes the architectural moulding of the scenery shine like silverware, forming a proscenium for the white balustrade in the background; in the second, a sunset casts persistent shadows in the foreground and cuts diagonally through the entire painting, which stands out for its loaded brushstrokes and buildups of paint. While the Capriccio with Ruins clearly also owes a debt to solutions developed by Marco Ricci, readapted and translated by Guardi, its pendant looks back in some way to ideas more closely linked to the world of Canaletto. However, the unsettled, dreamlike atmosphere that characterises both paintings, distinguished by their dark-grey ground that determines the palette and the strong chiaroscuro effect of the images, can be attributed in its entirety to Guardi. 

The Architectural Capriccio with Statue of Minerva, described as an “excellent work” by Morassi, can be linked to another painting that recently found its way onto the antiques market, albeit a smaller piece on a wooden support.¹ It was presented as an autograph work by Francesco Guardi and yet, as rightly acknowledged by Succi,² it can probably be traced back to the hand of his son Giacomo, as demonstrated by the clumsier transcription, with less certain colours than the work in question. The rendering of the colours and light is also completely different, based on paler hues and more energetically contrasted colours. The subject of the portico, with countless variants, yet always used as a starting point for a telescopic composition that frames an additional view with the architecture in the foreground, was studied in detail by Francesco Guardi throughout his career and he produced numerous drawings that can be associated with his musings on the matter (e.g. the sheets conserved at the Museo Correr in Venice, nos. 907, 710, 707, 706, 717)³, although none of them can be directly associated with the canvas in question. 

As regards the chronology of these two paintings, despite the difficulty outlining the precise development of the master’s career, it seems plausible to date them to around the mid-1770s. This theory is supported by the restricted palette adopted by Guardi, the darkgrey ground, the light and the golden tone that characterises the two canvases, together with the clear influence of certain inventions by Marco Ricci (although this interest developed as early as the 1760s, as demonstrated by the copy of the Architectural Capriccio with Roman Ruins by Marco and Sebastiano Ricci, now conserved at the Musei Civici in Vicenza). It has been observed that the date of 1780 that appears on the back of the painting formerly in New York should be linked to Giacomo. Indeed, Succi links its presence to “furtive certifications” by the son and,⁴ as the scholar observed, it could document the period of execution of the original creation if nothing else, during the years when Giacomo was working as an apprentice in his father’s workshop. 

Denis Ton

¹ Christie’s, London, 6-7 July 2005, lot 18, 20 x 16.2 cm.

² D. Succi, “Francesco Guardi 1712-1793”, in Gorizia 1988, p. 377.

³ See Pignatti 1983, vol. III, pp. 146-151.

⁴ D. Succi, “Francesco Guardi 1712-1793” cit., p. 378.