The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 9, 2024

A Procession of Triumphal Cars in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, Celebrating the Visit of the Conti del Nord (recto)

A Procession of Triumphal Cars in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, Celebrating the Visit of the Conti del Nord (recto)

1782
(Italian, 1712–1793)
Sheet: 25.9 x 36.8 cm (10 3/16 x 14 1/2 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Before entering the museum's collection, this sheet may have been cut on the left, possibly to eliminate a sixth carriage that does not appear in Guardi’s other representations of the procession.

Description

This drawing records a grand procession through Venice's Piazza San Marco on the penultimate day of the 1782 celebrations for the visit of the Russian Grand Duke Paul (Pavel) Petrovitch and his wife Maria Feodorovna. Francesco Guardi was likely commissioned by the Venetian state to document the ducal visit. Drawing from the vantage point of the Procuratie Nuove (a palace on one side of the piazza), Guardi sketched five carriages festooned with allegories, which were meant to celebrate the governments of Catherine the Great and Venice. In order to include as much of the procession as possible, he manipulated the perspective of the buildings on the right side of the square.The loose handling and lively immediacy of the pen work suggests he executed it on the spot. One drawing (Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin) and two oil paintings (private collections, Venice and Milan) of the same scene survive. Cleveland’s sheet likely preceded these more detailed and polished compositions.
  • ?-1936
    Henry Oppenheimer [1859-1932], London.
    1936
    (Sold at Henry Oppenheimer’s sale at Christie's, London, July 10, 1936, cat. no. 93.)
    ?-1954
    Brinsley Ford [1908-1999], London.
    1954
    (Sold at Sotheby's, London, November 10, 1954, cat. no. 39.)
    probably 1954-1955
    (Richard H. Zinser, New York, NY, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, March 1955.)
    1955-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
  • Morassi, Antonio. Guardi:Tutti i Disegni di Antonio, Francesco E. Giacomo Guardi. Milan: Alfieri, 1975. Mentioned: p.124 under no. 266; Reproduced: no. 269.
    Pask, Kelly. “Francesco Guardi and the Conti del Nord: A New Drawing.” The J. Paul Getty Museum 20, (1992): 45-52. Mentioned: p. 52 under note 24
    Shaw, James Byam. “Francesco Guardi.” Old Master Drawings 9, no. 35 (December 1934). Mentioned: p. 50 under note 4.
    Arnolds, Günter. "Ein Festzug Auf Dem Marcus-Platz." Berliner Museen 62, no. 1/2 (1941): 17-1. Mentioned: p. 20
    Whitechapel Art Gallery. Eighteenth Century Venice: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings Held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery from January 3 to March 14 and at The Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham from March 21 to April 18. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1951. Mentioned: p. 19 no. 42.
    Shaw, James Byam. The Drawings of Francesco Guardi. London: Faber and Faber, 1951. Mentioned: p 28, 69 no. 43; Reproduced: pl. 43.
    “Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, January-March, 1955.” The Art Quarterly 18, no. 3 (Autumn 1955). Mentioned: p. 307
    Francis, Henry S. "Four Drawings by Francesco Guardi." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 45, no. 1 (1958): 8-13. Mentioned: pp. 12-13; Reproduced: p. 10.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 148 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 148 archive.org
    Bortolatto, Luigina Rossi. L’opera completa di Francesco Guardi. Milan: Rizzoli, 1974. Mentioned: p. 130 under no. 687.
    Shaw, James Byam. “Some Guardi Drawings Rediscovered.” Master Drawings 15, no. 1 (Spring 1977): 3-15. Mentioned: p. 5 under no.1
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 146 archive.org
    Biadene, Susanna. “Le feste per i Conti del Nord: 'ironico e malinconico' crepuscolo del rococo.” Quaderni di Venezia Arti 1. Rome: Viella, 1992. Mentioned: p. 102; Reproduced: p. 250.
    Visentini, Margherita Azzi. “Feste.” Francesco Guardi: Vedute, Capricci, Feste. Venice: Electa, 1993. Mentioned: p. 192 under no. 69
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: P. 8, 70-71, 286; Reproduced: P. 71, cat. no. 25
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 25, pp. 70-71, p. 286
  • Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Venice as City and Theater. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-April 21, 1985).
    Promenades, Pageants, Processions, and Pilgrimages. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 25, 1981-January 3, 1982).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).
    Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-February 25, 1968).
    Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).
    Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960).
    Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
    Eighteenth Century Venice. Whitechapel Art Gallery (January 3 - March 14 1951); Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (March 21 - April 18 1951).
  • {{cite web|title=A Procession of Triumphal Cars in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, Celebrating the Visit of the Conti del Nord (recto)|url=false|author=Francesco Guardi|year=1782|access-date=09 October 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1955.164.a