DOI article:
Bastek, Grażyna: New research on Venetian painting based on a group of canvases from the workshop of Michele Marieschi
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18947#0099
1. Michele Marieschi,
Archiledonic Fantasy,
during consen/ation
works, without
overpaintings
and before retouching
(Phot. Janusz Rosikoń)
workshop was assumed by Francesco Albotto, a former pupil and co-worker who
also married Marieschi’s widów. Albotto did not change the style of the
compositions issuing from the workshop, but imitated not only the themes
and motifs used until that time as well as the technology of his teacher’s works.
He even repeated his master’s workshop tricks. Nevertheless, the ąuality of
the works by teacher and pupil is not uniform. Albotto’s works do not possess
MarieschFs painterly freedom or the wealth of his painterly effects. His style
is morę economical, his compositions are stiff, less expansive, and although
he achieved MarieschFs typical textural effects with the same methods as his
master, the results are mechanical and without spontaneity. It is difficult to
distinguish precisely the oeuvre of Albotto from that of Marieschi; part of their
output certainly was created through mutual collaboration, and the difference
in the ąuality of their paintings is explained by surviving references to
collaboration of other painters in the creation of figures in MarieschFs
architectonic compositions.11
The first pair of paintings to be examined were the two Architectonic
Fantasies12 (iii. 1, 2) from the Tarnowski collection, in which they had been
11 Cf. for example E. Young, “Michele Marieschi - Another Signed View of Vemce and His Caprice
of Pałace or Prison Interiors”, Connoisseur, IX, 1977, s. 3-11; M. Manzelli, Michele Marieschi ed
11 suo alter-ego Francesco Albotto, Venice 1986; R. Toledano, Michele Marieschi, l’opera completa,
Milano 1988; Capricci ueneziani del Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Gorizia, Gorizia
1988; Marieschi tra Canaletto e Guardi, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Gorizia, Gorizia 1989.
12 Architectonic Fantasy, inv. no. 189040, 35.7 x 55 cm; Architectonic Fantasy, inv. no. 189038,
35.7 x 55 cm. These paintings were deposited at the National Museum in Warsaw during the war
by the Tarnowski family from Sucha. The family documents preserved at the museum indicate
that their were six paintings depicting architectonic fantasies in the collection. Two of them are
93
Archiledonic Fantasy,
during consen/ation
works, without
overpaintings
and before retouching
(Phot. Janusz Rosikoń)
workshop was assumed by Francesco Albotto, a former pupil and co-worker who
also married Marieschi’s widów. Albotto did not change the style of the
compositions issuing from the workshop, but imitated not only the themes
and motifs used until that time as well as the technology of his teacher’s works.
He even repeated his master’s workshop tricks. Nevertheless, the ąuality of
the works by teacher and pupil is not uniform. Albotto’s works do not possess
MarieschFs painterly freedom or the wealth of his painterly effects. His style
is morę economical, his compositions are stiff, less expansive, and although
he achieved MarieschFs typical textural effects with the same methods as his
master, the results are mechanical and without spontaneity. It is difficult to
distinguish precisely the oeuvre of Albotto from that of Marieschi; part of their
output certainly was created through mutual collaboration, and the difference
in the ąuality of their paintings is explained by surviving references to
collaboration of other painters in the creation of figures in MarieschFs
architectonic compositions.11
The first pair of paintings to be examined were the two Architectonic
Fantasies12 (iii. 1, 2) from the Tarnowski collection, in which they had been
11 Cf. for example E. Young, “Michele Marieschi - Another Signed View of Vemce and His Caprice
of Pałace or Prison Interiors”, Connoisseur, IX, 1977, s. 3-11; M. Manzelli, Michele Marieschi ed
11 suo alter-ego Francesco Albotto, Venice 1986; R. Toledano, Michele Marieschi, l’opera completa,
Milano 1988; Capricci ueneziani del Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Gorizia, Gorizia
1988; Marieschi tra Canaletto e Guardi, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Gorizia, Gorizia 1989.
12 Architectonic Fantasy, inv. no. 189040, 35.7 x 55 cm; Architectonic Fantasy, inv. no. 189038,
35.7 x 55 cm. These paintings were deposited at the National Museum in Warsaw during the war
by the Tarnowski family from Sucha. The family documents preserved at the museum indicate
that their were six paintings depicting architectonic fantasies in the collection. Two of them are
93