Italian Rococo Era Painter, 1712-ca.1793 The records of his parish in Venice show that Francesco Guardi was baptized on Oct. 5, 1712. His father, Domenico, who died when Francesco was 4, had a workshop. Francesco and his elder brother, Gian Antonio, worked in a small studio, carrying out such orders as they could get for almost anything the client wanted:mythological pictures, genre, flower pieces, battle scenes, altarpieces, and even, on rare occasions, frescoes. They did not hesitate to copy compositions by other artists, but what they borrowed they always transformed into something more capricious, less stable, more fragmentary in the refraction of light. Francesco did not emerge as an independent personality until 1760, when his brother died. Then, 48 years old, he married, established his own studio, and devoted himself chiefly to painting views of Venice. For the most part he worked in obscurity, ignored by his contemporaries. He was not even admitted to the Venetian Academy until he was 72 years old. Guardi and Canaletto have always been compared to one another because the buildings they chose to paint were often the same. But the way each artist painted them is very different. Canaletto's world is constructed out of line. It provides solid, carefully drawn, three-dimensional objects that exist within logically constructed three-dimensional space. Guardi's world is constructed out of color and light. The objects in it become weightless in the light's shimmer and dissolve in a welter of brushstrokes; the space, like the forms in space, is suggested rather than described. Canaletto belonged essentially to the Renaissance tradition that began with Giotto and, as it grew progressively tighter and more controlled, pointed the way to neoclassicism. Guardi belonged to the new baroque tradition that grew out of the late style of Titian and, as it became progressively looser and freer, pointed the way toward impressionism. Such differences appear even in Guardi's early view paintings, where he was obviously trying to copy Canaletto, such as the Basin of San Marco. The famous buildings are there, but they are far in the background, insubstantial, seeming to float. In front is a fleet of fishing boats, their curving spars seeming to dance across the surface of the canvas. What is important for Guardi is not perspective but the changing clouds and the way the light falls on the lagoon. Guardi became increasingly fascinated by the water that surrounds Venice. In late works, such as the famous Lagoon with Gondola, buildings and people have been stripped away until there is nothing but the suggestion of a thin line of distant wharfs, a few strokes to indicate one man on a gondola, a long unbroken stretch of still water, and a cloudless sky. Guardi also painted the festivals that so delighted visitors to the city, such as the Marriage of Venice to the Sea. This was a symbolic ceremony in which the doge, in the great gilded galley of the head of state, surrounded by a thousand gondolas, appeared before all Venice, in Goethe's image, "raised up like the Host in a monstrance." Of all Guardi's paintings the most evocative are his caprices, the landscapes born out of his imagination though suggested by the ruined buildings on the lonely islands of the Venetian lagoon. A gentle melancholy clings to such scenes.
The Torre del'Orologio
1765-70 Oil on canvas, 62,5 x 89,4 cm Akademie der bildenden K?nste, Vienna Ever since the early sixteenth century the view of Piazza San Marco has been partly determined by the Torre dell'Orologio, the construction of which was largely completed in 1506. Francesco Guardi represented the building here with the two storeys added to the wings in 1755. To the left of this is part of the Procuratie Vecchie, which at that time accommodated the procurators of San Marco, the most important representative magistracy after the Doge; on the right is the Basilica itself. It is striking that the square does not display the geometrical patterns of the paving which was laid in about 1723. Guardi recorded the view from a vantage point beyond the Campanile, though he adapted the result of his observations somewhat for the sake of the composition. By placing the walls of the Procuratie and the Torre parallel to the picture plane, the angle between these structures and the fa?ade of San Marco appear greater than in reality. This also has the effect of making the square much more spacious. There are also several details which do not entirely correspond with the actual situation, such as the three flagstaffs, which have been depicted lower and thinner than in actuality. A drawing by Guardi has been preserved that is virtually identical in terms of detail to the painting. Despite the prominent place of the Torre dell'Orologio it was seldom chosen as an independent motif by the Venetian vedutisti. Carlevaris and Canaletto did include it in paintings, but only as an incidental feature, and furthermore from a different angle. Francesco Guardi painted this theme at least eight times, always from virtually the same vantage point. Each time he gave a slightly different impression of the space by varying the relationships, the light and the positioning of the figures. In this painting the foreground is almost empty and the depth is only accentuated by the strikingly foreshortened fa?ade of San Marco and the lines of the three flagstaffs running parallel to it, and by the tents fluttering fitfully in the wind. In this simple composition Guardi emphasized the play of light and colour on the walls and the pavement. Artist: GUARDI, Francesco Painting Title: The Torre del'Orologio , 1751-1800 Painting Style: Italian , , landscape