(Venice 1758–1835)
The Grand Canal at San Vio, Venice
oil on canvas, 76 x 109.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Dario Succi for suggesting the attribution.

Vincenzo Chilone was one of the last representatives of the glorious period of eighteenth-century Venetian vedute following of Antonio Canal, il Canaletto. He studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti of his city, to which he donated – upon being nominated a painter of the academy in 1824 – an Architectural view with the entrance to a Venetian palace, which is clearly influenced by Canaletto, and is characterised by careful brushwork with accents of a delicate refinement (Venice, Museo d’arte moderna, inv. no. 443).

One of Chilone’s most famous pictures shows The ceremony for the re-positioning of the horses on St Mark’s Basilica, which took place in 1815 and was commissioned by the Accademia delle Belle Arti of Venice. The painter recorded the return of the celebrated four statues to the basilica, from which they had been removed by Napoleon’s troops (see the reproduction in Luigi Salerno, “I pittori di vedute in Italia”, Rome 1991, p. 367). Another of Chilone’s canvases, one of considerable size (105 x 135 cm), is conserved in the Museo Correr and shows a broad view of Saint Mark’s Basin, and clearly draws its inspiration from models by Canaletto (T. Pignatti, “Il Museo Correr di Venezia – Dipinti del XVII e XVIII secolo”, Vicenza 1960, p. 69).

The present painting shows the last stretch of the Grand Canal with the facade of palazzo Barbarigo and the basilica of the Salute on the right, and palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande on the left together with numerous other palazzos as far as the Basin of Saint Mark and the Riva degli Schiavoni in the distant background.

This painting, which from an iconographic point of view recalls Canaletto’s famous view in the Gemaeldegalerie of Dresden, dates from the central part of the artist’s career and can be dated to between the end of the eighteenth and start of the nineteenth century, after the period in which he painted a cycle of frescoes with Venetian views in Palazzo Morcotti in Udine, dated 1792 (R. Pallucchini, “La pittura veneziana del Settecento”, Venice-Rome 1960, fig. 607). The present canvas documents the style of Vincenzo Chilone at a crucial moment of his artistic development and the candid adhesion to a light, luminous manner of painting based on the models of Canaletto, whose influence is quite evident not only in the iconographic format, but also in the precise rendition of architectural elements and of the numerous boats, in the luminosity permeating the composition and in the little figures created confidently as little patches of bright colour.

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Dario Succi for suggesting the attribution.

Vincenzo Chilone was one of the last representatives of the glorious period of eighteenth-century Venetian vedute following of Antonio Canal. il Canaletto. He studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti of his city, to which he donated – upon being nominated a painter of the academy in 1824 – an Architectural view with the entrance to a Venetian palace, which is clearly influenced by Canaletto, and is characterised by careful brushwork with accents of a delicate refinement (Venice, Museo d’arte moderna, inv. no. 443).

One of Chilone’s most famous pictures shows The ceremony for the re-positioning of the horses on St Mark’s Basilica, which took place in 1815 was commissioned by the Accademia delle Belle Arti of Venice, the painter recorded the return of the celebrate four statues to the basilica, from which they had been removed by Napoleon’s troops (see the reproduction in Luigi Salerno, “I pittori di vedute in Italia”, Rome 1991, p. 367). Another of Chilone’s canvases, one of considerable size (105 x 135 cm), is conserved in the Museo Correr and shows a broad view of Saint Mark’s Basin, and clearly draws its inspiration from models by Canaletto (T. Pignatti, “Il Museo Correr di Venezia – Dipinti del XVII e XVIII secolo”, Vicenza 1960, p. 69).

The present painting shows the last stretch of the Grand Canal with the facade of palazzo Barbarigo and the basilica of the Salute on the right, and palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande on the left together with numerous other palazzos as far as the Basin of Saint Mark and the Riva degli Schiavoni in the distant background.

This painting, which from an iconographic point of view recalls Canaletto’s famous view in the Gemaeldegalerie of Dresden, dates from the central part of the artist’s career and can be dated to between the end of the eighteenth and start of the nineteenth century, after the period in which he painted a cycle of frescoes with Venetian views in Palazzo Morcotti in Udine, dated 1792 (R. Pallucchini, “La pittura veneziana del Settecento”, Venice-Rome 1960, fig. 607). The present canvas documents the style of Vincenzo Chilone at a crucial moment of his artistic development and the candid adhesion to a light, luminous manner of painting based on the models of Canaletto, whose influence is quite evident not only in the iconographic format, but also in the precise rendition of architectural elements and of the numerous boats, in the luminosity permeating the composition and in the little figures created confidently as little patches of bright colour.