François de Nomé called Monsù Desiderio

Private Collection, Germany;
With Chaucer Fine Arts, London, by 1989;
Private Collection, England;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 24 January 2003, lot 88;
Anonymous sale, Venice, San Marco Casa d'Aste, 1 July 2007, lot 12.

London, Chaucer Fine Arts, Paintings and Drawings, Sculpture, Works of Art, 26 May - 14 July 1989, no. 12.

M.R. Nappi, François de Nomé e Didier Barra:  l'enigma Monsù Desiderio, Milan 1991, p. 189, no. A 109, reproduced;
M. Sary, M.R. Nappi, et. al., Enigma.  Monsú Desiderio: un fantastique architectural au XVIIe siècle, exh. cat. Metz, Musées de la Cour d'Or, 6 November 2004 - 28 February 2005, Metz 2004, pp. 54-55, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored and should be hung as is. The canvas has been lined and the paint layer has been cleaned, varnished and retouched. The retouches are focused in an area around the top of the Campanile where the sky for some reason has received a fairly consistent amount of retouching. In the lighter colors of the architecture and in the lower half of the Campanile itself there are also restorations but they have been extremely carefully and well applied and although the retouching in the sky may be a little warm in color, the painting looks very well despite being abraded.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This mysterious and fanciful view of Venice is a mature work by the idiosyncratic artist François de Nomé.  One of two artists who worked under the pseudonym Monsù Desiderio -- the other being Didier Barra -- Nomé's work is characterized by its visionary, almost dream-like qualities and was even sited as a source of inspiration by the Surrealists in the twentieth century.  Although born in Metz, the artist left for Rome at an early age and spent most of his career in Naples, where he is recorded as early as 1610.  Two interrelated types emerge in his body of work:  firstly, perspective views of street scenes and interiors in the Renaissance tradition; and secondly, architectural fantasies and imaginary scenes often showing buildings crumbling to the ground or set ablaze as in The Burning of Sodom and Gomorrah (Rome, private collection). 

The present work falls into the first category of perspective views; however, here too an element of the unreal has crept into the architectural setting.  Not known to have visited Venice, Nomé likely based this depiction on one of the many prints of the locale then in circulation in Italy.  He does not present the buildings faithfully, but rather delights in the deformation of their facades.  In addition to the gargoyles that he has added to the roofline of the Palazzo Ducale, the church of San Marco has been transformed into a soaring concoction of Baroque design.  The ominous black waters of the bacino are a far cry from the glittering blues represented later by Canaletto and others at the height of Venetian vedutismo, and the sky -- so bright and sunny on the left and yet so dark and foreboding on the right -- would seem to suggest an eclipse or other celestial event. 

Although François de Nomé was known to work with collaborators who added the staffage to his landscapes, views and fantasies, the extremely small scale of the figures here would seem to suggest that they are by the artist's own hand.