View Of Venice, attributed to Francesco Tironi (c.1745 - 1797))

Francesco Tironi (Venice, circa 1745 - 1797)

View of Venice with the entrance to Cannaregio

oil on canvas 59 x 75 cm with frame 72 x 88 cm

Work accompanied by a descriptive note by Prof. E. Negro

The canvas, which dates back to the ninth decade of the 18th century, is attributed to the Venetian landscape painter Francesco Tironi (Venice, 1745-1797) and demonstrates the artist's expressive skills in the mature phase of his career.

It is a view of Venice, immortalising a glimpse of the city with several palaces, two churches and two bell towers, captured at the mouth of the Cannaregio Canal. the canvas therefore reproduces a picturesque corner of the lagoon populated by a gondola and boats sailing or anchored in that stretch of the famous city waterway, populated by numerous figures of merchants, sailors and commoners.

Both the architectural structures of the buildings and the slightly rippled motion of the lagoon's waves have been reproduced with sober brevity compared to reality. Furthermore, the veduta composition is appropriately set against a background characterised by a vast portion of sky crossed by white clouds.

In the 18th century, Venice experienced a second “golden age” in the artistic and cultural fields. Venetian landscape painting became a highly successful genre, satisfying the demands of patrician families and nobles, especially English and German, but also French, who visited the city during their “Voyage d'Italie” (Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples), and those who, although they had never been to Venice, wanted to decorate their residences with views of the Serenissima.

Alongside Antonio Canal “il Canaletto” (1697-1768), the leading exponent of vedutismo, a large number of artists working in the lagoon city made this period of painting extraordinary.

Among these, Luca Carvelarijs, the Guardi family, Francesco and his son Giacomo, Michele Marieschi and Francesco Tironi, to whom the painting in question is attributed, are worthy of mention. Our reference is supported by a comparison with the painter's authentic works, due to the similar way of setting up the scenes, the common tendency in the rendering of perspective, the attention to detail in the precisely drawn architecture, the marked play of light and shadow, and the Canaletto-style figures that animate the scene in the square.

Tironi is characterised by a rather eclectic taste, which blends elements borrowed from Canaletto or Marieschi (in terms of the type of “macchiette” and the compositional structure of the views) with clear influences from Guardi (in terms of the synthetic rendering of the architectural elements, defined in a fluid manner).

With regard to our View of Venice at the entrance to Cannaregio, there are numerous similarities with other compositional works by Tironi, so that to confirm the proposed attribution, it is sufficient to compare it with some drawings by the Venetian master (for example, the View of the island of Mazzorbo and that of the islands of Murano, of S. Michele and S. Cristoforo, both in New York in the Robert Lehman collection), as well as with the paintings depicting the View of the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge (Aiaccio, Musée Fesch), the View of the Brenta River (Genoa, Cambi Casa d'Aste, 16 December 2021, no. 211) and the pendant with views of St. Mark's Square and the island of S. Giorgio (Genoa, Wannenes, 5 March 2020, no. 773).

These works, in fact, show clear stylistic similarities and similar perspective inventions that can also be found in our scene, namely a peculiar revival of early 18th-century landscape painting aimed at overcoming and simplifying the last remnants of the Baroque and a clear orientation towards more subdued figurative solutions, inspired by genuinely Venetian models in the design of the architecture: characteristics that recur in the rewarding works of Francesco Tironi.

The view, in excellent condition, has been relined and enriched with a beautiful antique gilded and lacquered frame.