GABRIELE BELLA
Venice, 1730-1799
View of Saint Mark’s Square towards the Basilica
oil on canvas, cm 80×120
Vedutismo, namely the artistic genre focused on the depiction of distinctive urban landscape views with meticulous detail and often with an almost scientific verisimilitude, emerged as one of the defining artistic forms of the 18th century. Closely tied to the flourishing of the phenomenon of the Grand Tour and the rise of wealthy touring from the rest of Europe, Venice was the epicentre of this innovative current, and was home to the international success of notable artists such as Canaletto, Guardi, and Bellotto.
The view we are presenting has been attributed to Gabriele Bella by Dario Succi. Renowned for his depictions of the lagoon city during celebrations and festive events, Bella’s painting “reproduces, with a vibrant palette, one of the most iconic views of the 18th-century veduta tradition”. In his analysis of the painting, Succi also underlines that the artist “employed this same view in two other canvases from the “Funzioni di Venezia” series, housed in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia (“Il giro della piazza del doge in pozzetto” and “L’ultimo giorno di Carnevale”). Succi further suggests that the painting can be dated to around the mid-1780s.