The plaza known as the Piazza San Marco in Venice was as popular among tourists in the 1700s as it is today, and the painter Francesco Guardi provided the wealthiest of these visitors with both painted and drawn images of it. The Cleveland drawing is one of a number by Guardi that depict the same view, showing the facade of the Basilica of San Marco at the far end, the campanile (bell tower), and the Procuratie Nuove, the building seen in perspective at the right. This drawing was likely executed in Guardi’s studio, perhaps from a model made on-site using a camera obscura to capture the wide-angle viewpoint of the square. Traces of black chalk indicate where Guardi carefully worked out the arrangement and perspective of the buildings before delineating them with staccato strokes of his pen, imparting freshness and a sketchlike immediacy to his composition. His painterly handling of brown wash bathes the square in dramatic shadow. The square is populated by stock figures who take leisurely strolls under the late afternoon sun; yet the protagonist of the painting could be said to be Venice itself—the city known as <em>La Serenissima</em> (the Most Serene).
- Title: Piazza San Marco, Venice
- Creator: Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793)
- Date Created: 1780s
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 31.3 x 46.5 cm (12 5/16 x 18 5/16 in.)
- Provenance: Private collector, Budapest., (Sale at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 11, 1911, cat. no. 107.), (M. Knoedler & Co., London.), (Cesar M. De Hauke [1900-1965], Paris, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, March 1951.), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, with brush and gray wash (possibly chalk) and traces of black chalk, framing lines in brown and black ink
- Inscriptions: VERSO, center, in graphite: 588 2 [underlined, upside down] ; lower left, in red chalk: [5 ?]7 [sideways]
- Fun Fact: Francesco Guardi painted the Piazza San Marco at least twenty times during his life, in addition to a number of drawings.
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: Italy, Venice, 18th century
- Credit Line: John L. Severance Fund
- Collection: DR - Italian
- Accession Number: 1951.83
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Giclée Quality Guarantee:
Giclée printing is meant to produce a product at a higher quality and longer lifespan than a standard desktop inkjet printer. The word was used to describe digital reproductions of conventional artworks (painting or drawing) or photographs.
There are at least three basic criteria which must be met in order for the print to be considered a true giclée...
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The Quality :
The quality of the giclée print rivals traditional silver halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.
With Giclée printing technology, we are able to provide the best possible quality for the reproduction of fine art masterpieces as well as your personal photos. Our prints capture the subtlest of colors and contrasts, while retaining superb image sharpness.
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- The canvas depth of of each dimension will be 1.5" thick
All of our canvas prints are gallery wrapped. Your image will be visible in full on the front side of the canvas while the outer edges are either artistically extended or mirrored to wrap over the wood stretcher bars on all sides. Our canvases are hand-stretched over solid wood stretcher bars.
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