19th century, View with Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute

early nineteenth century

View with Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute

Oil on canvas, 40 x 65 cm

With frame, 53 x 77 cm

The painting in question, characteristic of the vedutista movement that developed during the 19th century in Italy and abroad, depicts a view of Venice, with particular attention to Punta della Dogana and the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. The work captures the unique atmosphere of the lagoon city, with its sparkling waters, gondolas sailing along the canals and buildings reflected in the water.

The term Vedutismo derived from the main subject represented, the so-called vedute, that is, suggestive panoramas printed on canvas by the great painters of the time. They differed from previous landscape paintings precisely because of their highly realistic nature, their almost maniacal attention to detail and the total preponderance of the landscape element: before vedutism, in fact, landscapes were almost exclusively used as panoramas, that is, backgrounds for the representation of men, women or animals, who remained at the centre of the scene. This new artistic movement instead brought the landscape to assume the role of protagonist of the work. The reasons for this success are to be found above all in the custom of the Grand Tour, the journey made by the young scions of European nobility to discover the continent, which had Italy as its favourite destination: Florence, Rome, Naples and obviously Venice, the most popular city of the entire eighteenth century, where the English were enraptured by the "decadent Italian charm". In Venice, vedutismo showed surprising signs of originality, projecting itself between visions anticipating romanticism and absolute fidelity to the real, natural or architectural data, thanks also to protagonists such as Canaletto, Francesco Guardi and Bernardo Bellotto. The marvelous landscapes of the lagoon and the unique monuments and palaces that populate it were, in fact, an unmissable destination for the nobles of the time and an irreplaceable subject for vedutisti painters. In this case the artist focuses his attention on the timeless glimpse of the Punta della Dogana (also called Punta della Salute or Punta da Màr), a thin triangular strip dividing the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, overlooking the San Marco Basin and hosting the iconic Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, designed by Baldassarre Longhena in the first half of the seventeenth century, clearly visible here. Its construction was born as a solemn vow of the Serenissima to the Virgin Mary, in thanksgiving for the end of the terrible plague of 1630-1631 that decimated the Venetian population: it is no coincidence that many artists decided to make it the protagonist of their paintings, manifesting through iridescent colours and romantic and decanting atmospheres this profound bond with a place of great spirituality.