FRANCESCO GUARDI
Venice, 1712-1793
Turks in Battle
oil on canvas, cm 66×52
Originally in the prestigious Venetian collection of the glamorous international socialite Evelina Levi Broglio, this oval painting was published for the first time in 1964 by the renowned art historian and collector Egidio Martini, who included it in his monumental work on Venetian painting. The scholar described the work as a “splendid and extremely rare” example of the art of Francesco Guardi, an artist most notably remembered as a veduta painter but who, “as is well know […] dedicated himself, in addition to landscape and figure painter, to other genres as well”. Martini also highlights the uniqueness of this painting, “rendered with clearly defined brushstrokes and with the brilliant and bright colours typical of Francesco”, from other battles attributed to the same artist, which according to the scholar were, on the contrary, the work of his older brother Antonio.
The canvas, characterized by a very vivacious and graceful palette, depicts a violent clash between two Turkish horsemen armed with scimitars. Weapons and banners lie scattered on the ground, while in the background other fighters can be glimpsed along with a tower adorned with corbels, balanced on the opposite side by the evocative invention of two crossed banners. The dynamic composition, structured along diagonals, is closely reminiscent of a painting attributed by Antonio Morassi to Francesco Guardi’s elder brother, Antonio, formerly in the Crespi collection in Milan. reveals many points in common with a painting which Morassi retraced to the artist’s older brother Antonio, and which was previously part of the Crespi collection in Milan.
Publications:
“La pittura veneziana del Settecento”, edited by Egidio Martini, Edizioni Marciane, Venice, 1964, pp. 117,(note 270), pp. 277-278, tav. XXVIII and 276.