From Taddeo to Tiepolo: The Dr. John O’Brien Collection of Old Master Drawings
From Taddeo to Tiepolo: The Dr. John O’Brien Collection of Old Master Drawings
Giovanni Antonio Guardi
The Supper at Emmaus
Auction Closed
January 27, 09:35 PM GMT
Estimate
18,000 - 22,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Giovanni Antonio Guardi
Vienna 1699 - 1760 Venice
The Supper at Emmaus
Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk;
bears attribution in pencil on the Skippe mount: Giovanni Antonio GUARDI
309 by 246 mm; 12 1/4 by 9 3/4 in
by descent to Mrs. A.C. Rayner-Wood, Old Collwall, near Malvern,
by descent to Edward Holland-Martin,
sale of the Skippe Collection, London, Christie's, 20 November 1958, lot 109, pl. 17,
to Mr. Eisemann;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 2004, lot 104
T. Pignatti, 'Un disegno di Antonio Guardi donato al Museo Correr,' Bolletino dei Musei civici veneziani, 1957, pp. 26, 31;
T. Pignatti, Critica d'arte, 23 (1957), p. 403, reproduced p. 400
K.T. Parker and J. Byam Shaw, Canaletto e Guardi, Venice 1962, p. 49
A. Morassi, Guardi: I disegni, Venice, 1975, p. 81, cat. no. 10, reproduced fig. 9a
P. Rosenberg, 'Un capolavoro di Gian Antonio Guardi,' Arte veneta, 1995, n. 47, pp. 63-67, reproduced fig. 3
James Byam Shaw was the first to recognize this drawing as the work of Giovanni Antonio Guardi, when it was still in the possession of the descendants of the collector, engraver and landscape draftsman, John Skippe (1742-1811), who had believed it to be by Sebastiano Ricci.
In 1995, Pierre Rosenberg discovered in the collegiate church of Nôtre-Dame at Les Andelys a masterpiece by Guardi, unattributed, to which he connected the present sheet and a study in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt (see Literature).1 The Frankfurt drawing, seemingly more rapidly executed, shows a number of differences from the present sheet, especially in the group of putti in the upper section. Its composition is closer to the final painting.
These two drawings are similar in size but not in format, the present sheet being squarer. Also, the figures are here more prominent, located closer to the picture plane, as is the case in the painted version. Antonio Morassi, though not aware of the painting, had already in 1975 described the similarities and differences between these two versions of the same composition and reiterated, on stylistic grounds, the attribution to Guardi (see Literature).
The O'Brien drawing is characterized by a very delicate and fluid use of abundant brown wash, of a slightly golden tonality, applied over a preliminary sketch in black chalk that shows some pentimenti, for instance in the position of the outstretched arms of the standing pilgrim. The chalk underdrawing is also lightly worked up in the pen and ink, and the animated and individual use of these media, so typical of Giovanni Antonio Guardi, is further enriched by the full use the artist has made of the white colour of the paper. Light flickers over the surface of the sheet, emphasizing the mystical nature of the event depicted.
Most probably dating from circa 1750, as Zampetti suggested2, this beautiful drawing and its related altarpiece are testimony to the deeply rooted Venetian demand for religious subjects. Rosenberg has also suggested a date after 1745 and pointed out, with other scholars, that the composition is based on a depiction of the same subject by Piazzetta (1682-1754), known from a canvas in the Museo Civico, Padua and a bozzetto in the Kunstmuseum, Göteborg.
1. Morassi, op. cit., p. 81, cat. no. 11, reproduced fig. 9b
2. Mostra di Guardi, exh. cat., op. cit.
3. Rosenberg, op. cit., p. 66, figs. 4 & 5