Giuseppe Bernardino Bison

Private collection, UK.

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. These paintings are both well restored and should be hung in their current state. Both canvases have been lined and the linings are effective. Scattered retouches are visible in the sky under ultraviolet light. In the composition of the Grand Canal a long diagonal retouch can be seen under ultraviolet light, cutting across the lower right corner. Abrasion to the finest details within the architecture is still visible to the naked eye. The retouches are reasonably numerous within both paintings, but they have been well-applied. Under ultraviolet light these retouches are clearly visible but seem to be on top of an opaque varnish which could suggest that there are older retouches beneath this opaque varnish. However, this is unlikely.
"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."

Bison was one of the last great proponents of Venetian view painting.  Following previous generations of masters such as Carlevarijs, Guardi, Marieschi and Canaletto, Bison used his impressive skills as both a painter and colorist to bring the art of vedutismo into the 19th century.

This pair of quintessential Venetian views depicts the Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi at the time of a regatta, and the Molo seen from the Bacino di San Marco.  The compositions are based on pendant paintings by Canaletto, and Bison likely used Antonio Visentini’s engravings after those works as the basis for his paintings.¹  Bison’s palette is more vividly colored than that of his predecessor and is enlivened by vibrant touches of red, particularly the banners and costumes of some of the figures in the Grand Canal painting.

Both compositions depict festival subjects. The regatta on the Grand Canal is based on a real event in 1709 which honored the visit to Venice of Frederick  IV, King of Denmark and Norway.  That event was first recorded in a painting by Luca Carlevarijs in 1710 which, in turn, inspired Canaletto’s version mentioned above.  The pendant Molo composition includes the Bucintoro, the Doge’s ceremonial barge, which was used every year on Ascension Day to take the Doge out to the Adriatic to perform the “Marriage to the Sea,” a ceremony that symbolically wedded the city of Venice to the sea.

 

1.  Canaletto's pendants painted for Consul Joseph Smith, Venice, and now in The Queen’s Collection, Windsor Castle; Visentini's engravings published in Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum, Venice 1735.