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Lot Essay
In 2003, Giuseppe Pavanello identified these two paintings as part of an elaborate decorative cycle that Antonio Guardi painted for the Ca’ Zulian on the campo San Felice in Venice. One of Antonio Guardi’s most ambitious and important commissions, the cycle originally comprised 15 canvases set into the ceiling and walls of a room on the first floor, overlooking the palazzo’s courtyard (fig. 1; Pavanello, op. cit., p. 53). In the 18th century, the paintings were removed from their stucco frames (which remain in situ; fig. 2) and, with the exception of the present two paintings, were reinstalled in the Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal, before eventually entering the collection of Senator Cini in 1963 at the Palazzo Loredan on the campo San Vio, where they remain today.
Painted with Antonio Guardi’s characteristic virtuoso, fluttery brushwork, these two oval canvases represent the Roman deities Apollo and Diana, and originally were displayed on opposite sides of the room. In the first, a youthful, muscular Phoebus (Radiant) Apollo rides across the sky in his chariot, which is drawn by rearing white and black horses. He wears a crown of laurel, reflecting his achievements in the arts. Following a classical tradition that became one of the Italian Baroque artists’ favorite iconographic conceits, Apollo is paired with his sister Diana, who in her role as moon-goddess, ushers in the night. She is identified by the crescent moon above her brow, as well as her spear and hunting dogs. In their original disposition in the Ca’ Zulian, the sibling deities would have been inserted into the overdoors, where they would have gazed upward toward the ceiling’s central element, the magnificent painting of Aurora in the heavens. This large painting, in turn, would have been flanked by lunettes representing the four elements (only Vulcan (fire), Neptune (water), and Ceres (earth) survive). Additional stucco frames indicate that eight rectangular paintings (also lost) originally decorated the walls of the room.
Guardi painted this decorative cycle for Zuanne Zulian (b. 26 March 1703), a wealthy Venetian who, we are told, had a passion for music and was known to sing arias from operas (Pavanello, op. cit., p. 55). The vast scope of the project, particularly the inclusion of Aurora at its center, suggests that it was created to celebrate an important family event. As Pavanello has argued, however, the circumstances of Zuanne’s and his sons' lives do not provide an obvious occasion for the commission. The wedding of Zuanne's granddaughter Lucrezia, however, was truly an event to celebrate. In 1757, Lucrezia married Alessandro Ottoboni Boncampagni, the duke of Fiano and a descendant of Pope Alexander VIII. Stylistically, the paintings appear to date from the mid-to-late 1750s, around the time of Antonio’s altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Saints at Cerete Basso (1754), which would lend further support to the theory that they were commissioned for the Ottoboni Boncampagni-Zulian wedding. Notably, the commission may have come to Antonio, as Pavanello has suggested, through the artist’s brother-in-law, Giambattista Tiepolo, who lived near the Ca’ Zulian on calle di Ca’ Gussoni (today’s calle del Minio) (ibid.).
Painted with Antonio Guardi’s characteristic virtuoso, fluttery brushwork, these two oval canvases represent the Roman deities Apollo and Diana, and originally were displayed on opposite sides of the room. In the first, a youthful, muscular Phoebus (Radiant) Apollo rides across the sky in his chariot, which is drawn by rearing white and black horses. He wears a crown of laurel, reflecting his achievements in the arts. Following a classical tradition that became one of the Italian Baroque artists’ favorite iconographic conceits, Apollo is paired with his sister Diana, who in her role as moon-goddess, ushers in the night. She is identified by the crescent moon above her brow, as well as her spear and hunting dogs. In their original disposition in the Ca’ Zulian, the sibling deities would have been inserted into the overdoors, where they would have gazed upward toward the ceiling’s central element, the magnificent painting of Aurora in the heavens. This large painting, in turn, would have been flanked by lunettes representing the four elements (only Vulcan (fire), Neptune (water), and Ceres (earth) survive). Additional stucco frames indicate that eight rectangular paintings (also lost) originally decorated the walls of the room.
Guardi painted this decorative cycle for Zuanne Zulian (b. 26 March 1703), a wealthy Venetian who, we are told, had a passion for music and was known to sing arias from operas (Pavanello, op. cit., p. 55). The vast scope of the project, particularly the inclusion of Aurora at its center, suggests that it was created to celebrate an important family event. As Pavanello has argued, however, the circumstances of Zuanne’s and his sons' lives do not provide an obvious occasion for the commission. The wedding of Zuanne's granddaughter Lucrezia, however, was truly an event to celebrate. In 1757, Lucrezia married Alessandro Ottoboni Boncampagni, the duke of Fiano and a descendant of Pope Alexander VIII. Stylistically, the paintings appear to date from the mid-to-late 1750s, around the time of Antonio’s altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Saints at Cerete Basso (1754), which would lend further support to the theory that they were commissioned for the Ottoboni Boncampagni-Zulian wedding. Notably, the commission may have come to Antonio, as Pavanello has suggested, through the artist’s brother-in-law, Giambattista Tiepolo, who lived near the Ca’ Zulian on calle di Ca’ Gussoni (today’s calle del Minio) (ibid.).