(Augsburg circa 1600–1678 Venice)
Procession for the Feast of the Redeemer, Venice,
oil on canvas, 59.5 x 90.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Dario Succi for suggesting the attribution and for his help in cataloguing the present lot.

This composition represents the traditional Venetian celebration of the Feast of the Redeemer which is associated with the ex-voto made by Doge Alvise Mocenigo I during the plague of 1575 and held annually on the third Sunday of July around the Island of Giudecca. Indeed, for the feast a bridge of boats is arranged across the Canale della Giudecca connecting the island with the Fondamenta delle Zattere, and the Doge, accompanied by the Senators dressed in red robes, together with religious authorities advanced in procession to the church of the Redentore where they were received by the Patriarch. Part of these celebrations continue to this day.

Joseph Heintz the Younger created this painting around 1640 and reprised it about ten years later in a canvas that belongs to a series which was bequeathed by count Giuseppe Volpi to the Museo Correr in 1937.

At the beginning of the 1630s Heintz established himself definitively in Venice, where he branded a style that combined a Northern taste for details and light effects with the Venetian tradition of view painting, thereby creating works of extreme theatricality, populated by a multitude of figures in movement and characterised by their brilliant pallet. Heintz became celebrated in Venice and Rome for his productions in various genre, including altar pieces, genre scenes and historical subjects. He is also celebrated for his Stregozzi or witches’ Sabbaths, allegorical works inspired by those of Hieronymus Bosch. During his Roman sojourn, Pope Urban VIII conferred upon him the title of Cavaliere dello Sperone d’Oro.