ALBOTTO FRANCESCO Lot n° 200

FRANCESCO ALBOTTO (1721-1753) 'The Grand Canal with the Basilica della Salute' oil cm. 97x61 ' The view studied here and whose image is reproduced in the attached photograph is the work of FRANCESCO ALBOTTO (Venice 1721-1757) the famous pupil and follower of Michele Marieschi (1710-1743) whose widow he married in 1744. Having entered the master's workshop at a very young age, Francesco Albotto lived in the same house as Marieschi until his marriage to Angela Fontana in 1737. After recent clarifying studies, including the exhibition I curated at the Museo Civico del Castello di Gorizia ('Marieschi tra Canaletto e Guardi' 1989), the paintings of Marieschi and Albotto can now be easily distinguished by specialists on the basis of their peculiar stylistic, technical and chromatic elements. Having remained in the shadows for a long time, the figure of Francesco Albotto began to emerge with certainty when in 1972 a view depicting 'The Doge's Palace seen from the sea' was sold at Sotheby's in New York, with the inscription 'Francesco Albotto F.' on the back of the original canvas. In Cale di Ca Loredan S. Luca'. Pointing out the important find, Rodolfo Pallucchini in an article on 'Arte Veneta' (1972) observed that 'the painting is unquestionably of a good level and finally documents the painting style of Francesco Albotto, evidently a disciple very close to Michele Marieschi, both in the perspective setting (perhaps freer than the master's) and in the pictorial material and the configuration of the spots'. The painting examined here corresponds iconographically to the painting of a similar subject belonging to the well-known series of twelve Venetian views kept at the Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte. This series, located in the second half of the eighteenth century in the palace of Capodimonte owned by the Farnese family and attributed first to Canaletto then to Bellotto and then to Marieschi, was returned by the writer to Francesco Albotto and dated around 1745 on the occasion of the already mentioned exhibition 'Marieschi tra Canaletto e Guardi' ( pp. 165 ff.). Both canvases are in turn clearly connected both with autograph paintings by Marieschi (including the one I published on p. 140 of the above-mentioned catalogue) and with the etching of a similar subject engraved by the same master, which is part of the series 'Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus' comprising 21 views and published in Venice in 1741. There are also several known versions by Francesco Albotto depicting the Basilica della Salute, characterised by an identical perspective layout and slight variations in the arrangement of the boats (see figure nos. 226 229 230 231 234 of the catalogue already cited). Our painting shows the technical and stylistic characteristics of Albotto's art, highlighted by the brushstroke with speckled textural clots that naturally render the fading of the light on the facades of the buildings overlooking the main Venetian waterway furrowed by numerous boats. The cheerful figures in various poses animate the view and contribute to underlining the depth of the perspective framework with the chromatic vivacity of the clothing. The painting is characterised by the fineness of touch highlighted by the accurate rendering of the basilica in full light through the soft chiaroscuro toning and the diffuse luminosity that coherently blends the architecture with the large portion of sky crossed by diaphanous clouds. In my opinion, the view can be dated to the second half of the 1740s on the basis of the peculiar chromatic, technical and stylistic characteristics.