(Padua 1605–1687 Venice)
Venice, a view of the Ponte dei Pugni,
oil on canvas, 112 x 256 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Count Francesco Algarotti, Venice;
Private collection, Switzerland

We are grateful to Ugo Ruggeri for confirming the attribution on the basis of a high resolution photograph, and for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

The present composition represents the Venetiarum pugillatus, also called the Lotta dei pugni al ponte (Fist fight at the bridge).

The painting is an exacting and faithful painted rendering of the engraving designed by Pietro Liberi and engraved in 1676 by Domenico Rossetti, Liberi’s pupil (see U. Ruggeri, Pietro e Marco Liberi pittori nella Venezia del Seicento, Venice 1996, pp. 277–278). The composition is also known from various preparatory drawings conserved in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, published by Bert W. Mejer (see B. W. Mejer, Pietro Liberi: i disegni preparatori per la Lotta dei pugni, in: Paragone, 1980, no. 367, pp. 42-46).

Ruggeri states the formal quality of the present painting speak in favour of its execution by the master from Padua, both on account of the characteristic pictorial culture and style typical of him, and for the references to Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina and to antique sculpture, also signalled as exemplary of the artist by his biographer Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato, in his Vita del Cavaliere Pietro Liberi of 1664 (see Ruggeri, op, cit., pp. 93-97). Moreover, the painterly technique is typical of the master’s maturity.

It should be noted that a ‘Guerra de pugni’ by Liberi was documented in the collection of Count Francesco Algarotti (see G. A. Selva/P. Edwards, Catalogo dei Quadri, dei Disegni e dei Libri che trattano dell’Arte del Disegno della Galleria del fu Sig. Conte Algarotti in Venezia, Venice 1776, p. XII).