Description

It is to Fogolari that we owe much of what we know about Giovanni Antonio Guardi. His activity was never much appreciated, and his work was never really well remunerated. Documentary sources regarding his early activity and private life are very scarce, but this has not prevented studies from giving more and more space to this gifted Venetian painter of the early eighteenth century. The earliest works that have come down to us reveal a connection with the Austrian Tridentine style rather than the recent Venetian innovations in painting. The registers of the patrician Giovanni Benedetto Giovannelli, Guardi’s benefactor and patron for several years, are a valuable source for us.

Thanks to his documents, we learn that the painter was often employed as an assistant to other artists or was given modest commissions. A turning point in Guardi’s career occurred around 1738 when he was in the service of Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, general of the Venetian army, who had recently won a significant victory against the Turks on Corfu. The painter distinguished himself by depicting stories taken from mythology or Scripture; in this case, the small canvas we see is an allegory depicting an Astronomer, which could also be interpreted as a Geographer, as the attributes of the two subjects are very similar. The chamber format, the close cut of the composition, and the lack of narrative intent indicate the canvas’s probable private and decorative destination. The subject emerges from an intense black background through long, mellow brushstrokes, particularly attentive to the luministic contrasts provided by the lighter scenes.

Bibl.: G. Fogolari, L’Accademia veneziana di pittura e scoltura del Settecento, in L’Arte, XVI (1913), pp. 246, 249.