(Venice 1730–1799)
Regatta in honour of Frederick Christian (1722–1763), Prince Elector of Saxony, 1740 on the Grand Canal, Venice,
oil on canvas, 94 x 147.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
commissioned by Andrea Querini Stampalia (1757–1825), around 1779;
with Giuseppe Bellesi, London;
where acquired by the present owner

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 68278 (as Gabriele Bella).

We are grateful to Dario Succi for endorsing the attribution of the present painting and for his help in cataloguing this lot. He dates this work to between 1780–1790.

In 1740 Frederick Christian, Prince Elector of Saxony and son of King Augustus III of Poland arrived in Venice, at the end of his Grand Tour of Italy. The young royal, who was partially paralysed due to an early childhood brain injury, was sent by his parents to the best convalescent centres in Italy. Officially, he was supposed to travel anonymously under the pseudonym of Comte de Lusace, however he enjoyed celebrity status and was recognised. Ceremonies and festivals were held in his honor, including a regatta on the Grand Canal in Venice on 4 May 1740, depicted here in the present painting.

Contemporary sources describe the events in honor of Frederick Christian, especially the main event, a regatta on the Grand Canal under the title The Triumph of Neptune. The participating boats and gondolas were preciously decorated by some of the leading Venetian artists of the time, among them Giambattista Tiepolo and Antonio Joli, representing ‘Neptune’s palace on a steep mountain, resting on the back of a sea monster’, ‘Saxony, with the Hanging Gardens of Flora, celebrated by the Adria’, ‘Saxony crowned by Polonia’, ‘Apollo with two horses and Aurora’, ‘Peace triumphing over discord’ etc. (see C. Conte di Prata, La Regata di Venezia. Composizione poetica in dialetto veneziano, Venice 1856, p. 52).

The present painting depicts the chariots of ‘Venus, pulled by two pigeons’ on the right and ‘Endymion with the dogs’ on the left. By choosing this composition, Bella freely follows Giuseppe Baroni’s print after The Regata in Honour of Frederick IV, King of Denmark and Norway by Luca Carlevarijs (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, inv. no. 86.PA.599). In the present composition the scene is animated by the colorful boats and their oarsmen. The predominating complementary contrasts of red and blue run through the entire composition.

The painting was commissioned together with other paintings by the erudite bibliophile and Venetian patron Andrea Querini Stampalia (1710–1795) around 1779, 67 of which are still conserved in the Pinacoteca della Fondazione Scientifica Querini Stampalia, Venice. The collection was dedicated to Venetian celebrations, ceremonies and vedute and was originally destined for Querini’s residence at Santi Quaranta, Treviso. In 1791 Querini inherited further paintings by Gabriel Bella from the collection of the deceased Girolamo Ascanio Giustinian, which originally decorated the Villia Giustinian at Campodipietra.

Gabriele Bella belonged to the second generation of Venetian vedutisti, whose early work was strongly influenced by the oeuvres of Canaletto and Bellotto. Probably the most famous works by the artist, who entered the painters’ fraglia around 1760, are the aforementioned lively scenes of Venetian life in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice. As a protégé of the powerful Giustiniani family, in whose palazzo he resided for many years, Bella produced a great variety of views depicting Venetian life.