(Venice 1668–1725) Naval Battle, oil on canvas, 170 x 220 cm, framed

Provenance: European private collection;

Certificates: Giuseppe Fiocco, 1942, as Francesco Guardi; Antonio Morassi, as Francesco Guardi; Mina Gregori, as Antonio Guardi, c. 1730-1735 ;

Literature: M. S. Proni, Antonio Maria Marini, l‘opera completa, Naples 1992, p. 233, fig. 3.50b.;

Traditionally considered to be a work by Francesco Guardi, and subsequently attributed to Gianantonio Guardi like its pendant, depicting the summoning of the troops (lot 9) the present painting has recently been attributed to Antonio Marini (M. S. Proni, Antonio Maria Marini, l‘opera completa, Naples 1992, p. 233, fig. 3.50b).
The artist came from Venice, but is also documented to have worked in Bologna and Padua and seems to have sojourned in Brescia and Bergamo. Nevertheless, with his chiaroscuro and heroic depictions, he always remained influenced by Salvator Rosa and the exuberance of the Baroque. In his art, reality is transformed into a dreamlike vision and immediate, sweeping emotion that is never mundane or banal, as is also displayed by the present work. All this, as well as the unusual dimensions of the work and its painterly quality, dispels all doubts about its attribution. The present painting is unique within the artist‘s production known to date. The subject as such was rarely treated by contemporary battle painters. The customary spatial dimensions are here modified as the scene is transferred from its usual setting in the open sea to a confined bay, as if the artist had wanted to display his skills as a landscape painter. In the foreground, on the mainland, one can see soldiers and sailors confronting each other in furious, bloody skirmishes: the duel between two opponents on the right seems almost over, whereas the corpulent figure on the left challenges his enemies by raising his arm and calling for soldiers - indispensable set-pieces in the composition‘s spatial organization. Comparable elements can be found in Marini‘s large cavalry engagement in the Museo Civico in Padua (M. S. Proni, op. cit., 1992, p. 232, fig. 3.27b), a well as in a further example of the same subject matter (M. S. Proni, op. cit., 1992, p. 202, no. 328). Immediately behind the first pictorial plane, the rancorous battle extends to the small boats caught in the surge and continues in the large, majestic sailing boats amidst the foaming waves, accentuated by light effects. The intense azure of the sky seems to dissolve in the water and bathes the scene in a shrill and unreal blue. A tower that elevates the scene and concludes it at the same time marks the spatial delineation of the third plane. The fiery depiction‘s direction of movement is underlined by the protagonists‘ raised arms and a manner of painting in which matter is condensed within a coagula of light and which defies any traces of a preliminary drawing. The bold brushwork causes the outlines to soften. All the technical possibilities have been employed in order to enhance the painitng‘s vividness. The present work and its pendant date from the artist‘s maturity. We are grateful to Maria Silvia Proni for cataloguing the present painting.

Provenance: European private collection; Certificates: Giuseppe Fiocco, 1942, as Francesco Guardi; Antonio Morassi, as Francesco Guardi; Mina Gregori, as Antonio Guardi, c. 1730-1735 ; Literature: M. S. Proni, Antonio Maria Marini, l‘opera completa, Nap