Giovanni Battista Cimaroli

Private collection, Milan, in 1972;

With Dickinson, London.

A. Morassi, Saggio su Giambattista Cimaroli collaboratore del Canaletto, in Arte veneta, XXVI (1972), p. 175, fig. 246 (Animated View of a Villa by the River Brenta);

F. Spadotto, 'Un artista dimenticato: Giovanni Battista Cimaroli', in Saggi e Memorie di storia dell'arte, Venice 1999, vol. 23, pp. 153-155, no. 30, fig. 16;

F. Spadotto, Giovan Battista Cimaroli, Rovigo 2011, pp. 268-269, no. 94.

Described as ‘one of the masterpieces of Cimaroli’s style of realism’ in the catalogue of the exhibition Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte (see Bibliography), this pair of paintings represents two of the most beautiful views painted by the Lombardy artist.

Born in 1687 in Salò, Cimaroli spent some time in Bologna before settling in Venice, where in 1722 he joined the workshop of the young Canaletto. They worked together notably on the production of several paintings depicting allegorical tombs of illustrious individuals, a series commissioned by Owen McSwiney on behalf of the Duke of Richmond.

But Cimaroli adopted his own style, treating classical realism with a softer touch and a warmer atmosphere than his fellow artist. He added contemporary figures, variously occupied, to animate the precisely described architectural elements, in the serene landscape of the Venetian campagna.

In his Capriccio with villa beside the Brenta, Cimaroli revisits the motif of the Palladian villa overlooking the Brenta, borrowed from Zuccarelli and Visentini in their Capriccio with the Church of the Redeemer, now in a private collection.

In the present painting, Cimaroli is inspired by the elegance of the Veneto’s classical residences, placing them at the heart of scenes from ordinary life. His distinctive style can be recognized in both compositions: the principal architectural elements are in the foreground, with houses gradually fading into the misty atmosphere of the background, behind which a distant mountain range closes the composition. The figures depicted often show great variety, with peasants alongside fine gentleman and elegant ladies. Finally, the afternoon light that bathes Cimaroli’s works allows him to accentuate chosen details and to emphasize the landscape’s shadows and reflections. With a painstaking touch, he describes the daily life of his contemporaries in a way that combines realism with a charmingly gentle quality.

The considerable skill displayed by Cimaroli in these compositions led Federica Spadotto to date them to the period of his maturity, in the second half of the 1740s (see Bibliography, p. 154). Another autograph version of the composition depicting the villa beside Brenta, with some variations, was offered on the art market by the Maria Dietrich gallery in Munich.