Antonio Joli

Collection of The Honourable Mrs. E. J. Phillips;

Anonymous sale (The Property of The Hon. Mrs. E. J. Phillips), Christie’s, London, 24 May 1991, lot 81;

Anonymous sale, Franco Semenzato, Venice, 27 October 1991, lot 179 (withdrawn);

Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 7 July 2004, lot 89;

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 7 December 2005, lot 58;

With Dickinson, London, in 2008.

I. Reale and D. Succi, in Luca Carlevarijs e la veduta veneziana del Settecento, exh. cat., Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, September-December 1994, p. 281, cat. no. 96, repr. pp. 284-285;

M. Manzelli, Antonio Joli opera pittorica, Venice 1999, pp. 49 and 102, cat. no. V.11, pl. XXXVIII°.

Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, Luca Carlevarijs e la veduta veneziana del Settecento, September-December 1994, no. 96.

In the tradition of the vedute, this spectacular panoramic view of Venice is one of the largest depictions of the city produced by Antonio Joli. Painted from an imaginary point of view, it gives a new large and harmonious vision of the Serenissima.

This spectacular panoramic view of Venice is one of the largest depictions of the city produced by Antonio Joli. Painted around 1754 to 1755, by which time the artist had become very well known, it perfectly illustrates the learning he had absorbed. 

Born in Modena, Antonio Joli travelled first to Rome, where he discovered Panini’s vedute and capricci; he may even have been a student in his workshop. In 1718, he was entrusted with the decoration of the Villa Patrizi and the following year became a member of the Accademia di San Luca. Joli then settled in Venice between 1732 and 1742, the first of two separate periods spent in the city, and it was during this decade that he probably met Canaletto. He now began to receive commissions from important individuals, including Matthias von der Schulenburg, a German general and aristocrat who was one of the most active collectors in Venice. Joli is subsequently documented in various European cities, including Naples, Perugia, Dresden and London, where he lived between 1744 and 1748. His presence is also recorded in Madrid between 1750 and 1754. Joli then returned to Italy and based himself in Venice again for a year. During this period he was elected member of the Accademia di Belle Arti before being appointed court painter to Charles VII, King of Naples and later of Spain.

In Succi’s view, the composition dates specifically to the time of his return to Venice, while Manzelli opts instead for the last years of his stay in London – this possibility is corroborated by the frame, probably original, which dates to the George II period.

In this imposing view, Joli demonstrates what he had learnt from the vedutisti active in the early years of the century; specifically, like Gaspar Butler, he uses a central vanishing point. However, he goes beyond these traditional constructions with a slightly distorted aspect: this enables him to widen the actual view and to paint a greater number of monuments, thus creating a complete and harmonious picture of the entire Bacino. To achieve this, Joli breaks free from the lessons of classicism and modifies the viewpoints so as to make the ensemble of monuments easily identified. The viewer will recognize the Punta della Dogana on the left, the Riva degli Schiavoni in the distance – slightly extended – and on the right the church of San Giorgio Maggiore and the convent of San Giovanni Battista. The composition is closed on the right by an outer wall surmounted by two medieval towers, which Manzelli identifies as the Palazzo Dandolo delle Torri, demolished in the early nineteenth century; Succi, however, believes the two towers to be an imaginary motif, borrowed from a view of Avignon now in the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. The wide expanse of water, occupying most of the lower part of the composition, is animated with boats, including the burchiello, recognizable in the lower left by the elegant wooden cabin that shelters its passengers.

While there are many topographical views in Joli’s corpus, those depicting Venice are rare. The artist nevertheless produced several compositions featuring the same boats and similar architecture, with often approximate topographical accuracy. The present work is distinguished by its original perspective and its unusual format: it was probably an overdoor painting.

In this majestic view of Venice, Joli illustrates the main buildings lining the Giudecca canal; as in several other cases, he shrouds the foreground architecture in shadow, thus accentuating the contrast of colours and the effect of depth. The somewhat cold tones and light are subtly modified by the pink tints that the artist has used for the clouds and mist in the distance.

Although Joli’s art is in the tradition of the vedutisti, he breaks away from classical models in his use of colder tonalities and in the particularly wide format, as well as in his ability to paint a panorama in which reality is enhanced through multiple viewpoints within the same composition. The originality of this view and the liberties Joli took with reality, yet without painting an imaginary scene, make this panorama one of his most striking works.