Francesco Guardi

(Venice 1712-1793)

The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, with the entrance to the Grand Canal and the Punta della Dogana beyond

Footnotes

Provenance
The Collection of D.P. Sellar, 68 Princes Gate, London
Sale, Christie's, 17 March 1888, lot 74 (with a pendant depicting the Dogana - 96 gns. to Martin Colnaghi, presumably on behalf of the following)
The Collection of Stephenson Clarke (1824-1891), Borde Hill, Sussex, and by descent to Robert Stephenson Clarke, by whose executors sold
Sale, Christie's, London, 10 December 1993, lot 66
Private Collection, Greece
Sale, Christie's, London, 8 December 2016, lot 34 ('The Property of a Lady')
Where purchased by the present owners

The present view shows the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, looking out towards the entrance to the Grand Canal with the Bacino di San Marco in the distance. The Seminario Patriarcale is just visible beyond the Church of the Salute. In 1888 this Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, with the entrance to the Grand Canal and the Punta della Dogana beyond was offered for sale at Christie's with a pendant showing the Punta della Dogana, presumably a view taken in the opposite direction from the current painting.

Although numerous depictions of the Church of Santa Maria della Salute appear within Guardi's oeuvre, there are few works known that show the church from such close quarters, as is the case with the present work. A larger canvas (73 × 119.4 cm.), dateable to circa 1760, now hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago (ref. no. 1951.21). In this latter work, the church similarly dominates the foreground although Guardi has depicted the view from slight further to the right.

In his entry for the painting in Chicago, Morassi cites a pen and ink drawing formerly in the Broglio collection, Paris (see A. Morassi, Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice, 1973, vol. I, p.397 cat. no. 464).

In 1630 Venice was struck by a devastating plague in which it lost about a third of its population. In an undertaking similar to that for the Church of the Redentore in the 1570s, it was decided that the Republic would build a church, as a votive offering, dedicated to the Our Lady of Health. Baldassare Longhena was selected to design the building and construction began in 1631. Beyond the church one can see what is now the Seminario Patriarcale housed in a building also designed by Longhena but built in the 1670s.