DOI Artikel:
Bastek, Grażyna: New research on Venetian painting based on a group of canvases from the workshop of Michele Marieschi
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18947#0101
photographs, can be explained by their very poor condition at the time. Both
works were covered with thick darkened layers of coloured varnish from
previous conseryation efforts. The first step of the current work involved the
removal of varnish and the surface retouches connected with it, revealing
a rich and interesting polychrome, although still not completely legible due to
the presence of numerous retouches remaining from the various stages of
conseryation and yariously coloured picture putties. Some of them were
applied so thickly that they concealed fragments of the original composition,
including the figurę of a man standing beneath the stairs conversing with the
woman at the top, whose gestures can only now be properly understood.
A subseąuent procedurę which significantly improved the artistic expression
of the work was the successful extraction of wax used for doubling during
earlier conseryation. The removal of this wax, which had significantly
darkened the colour and value contrasts, returned legibihty and expansiveness
to the composition.
The present condition of the paintings permitted discussions of attribution,
although significant damage has been confirmed - the layer of paint in both
works is very abraded and there are many paint losses, not only in the layers
of paint but in the canvas as well. The original artistic effects and their relation
to the method of constructing the paintings were discoyered thanks to
conseryation, and confirmed additionally with technological research and
examination, which have enabled the close association of both with other
works from the group of architectonic fantasies by Michele Marieschi.
There are relatively few compositions of this type, with fantastic pałace
interiors and prison courtyards, in the painter’s total output. The workshop
of the master and his follower Albotto produced far morę compositions
depicting views of Venice and caprices with motifs of riyerbanks and ruins.
There are eighteen architectonic fantasies surviving today,21 all of them with
the same dimensions of approximately 35 x 55 cm, with the exception of the
one in the Accademia in Venice, which is only somewhat larger. Among the
18 paintings, eight repeat the type of architectonic composition which differ
among themselves only in the scenie arrangement. One of the Warsaw pictures
belongs to a group of four which are distinguished by identical architecture.22
The first of the paintings discussed as well as the one in Northampton are
identical. The other Warsaw painting has no analogous composition, while the
third of the group, currently in the castle in Pieskowa Skala, is one of three
similar yersions.
The construction of the Warsaw paintings, analysed in cross-sections of the
layers of paint,2" reveal many similarities to the construction of other 18th
century Venetian scenes; but it also reveals certain features which can be
for sharing with me her analysis of the condition of their preservation as well as their construction.
21 Cf. Toledano, op. cit.
22 The remainder are at Washington University, St. Louis, inv. No. 2069; Landesmuseum,
Hanover, inv. No. 179; and Northampton, England, (private collection).
23 LMA Conducted by Dr Maria Ligęza.
95
works were covered with thick darkened layers of coloured varnish from
previous conseryation efforts. The first step of the current work involved the
removal of varnish and the surface retouches connected with it, revealing
a rich and interesting polychrome, although still not completely legible due to
the presence of numerous retouches remaining from the various stages of
conseryation and yariously coloured picture putties. Some of them were
applied so thickly that they concealed fragments of the original composition,
including the figurę of a man standing beneath the stairs conversing with the
woman at the top, whose gestures can only now be properly understood.
A subseąuent procedurę which significantly improved the artistic expression
of the work was the successful extraction of wax used for doubling during
earlier conseryation. The removal of this wax, which had significantly
darkened the colour and value contrasts, returned legibihty and expansiveness
to the composition.
The present condition of the paintings permitted discussions of attribution,
although significant damage has been confirmed - the layer of paint in both
works is very abraded and there are many paint losses, not only in the layers
of paint but in the canvas as well. The original artistic effects and their relation
to the method of constructing the paintings were discoyered thanks to
conseryation, and confirmed additionally with technological research and
examination, which have enabled the close association of both with other
works from the group of architectonic fantasies by Michele Marieschi.
There are relatively few compositions of this type, with fantastic pałace
interiors and prison courtyards, in the painter’s total output. The workshop
of the master and his follower Albotto produced far morę compositions
depicting views of Venice and caprices with motifs of riyerbanks and ruins.
There are eighteen architectonic fantasies surviving today,21 all of them with
the same dimensions of approximately 35 x 55 cm, with the exception of the
one in the Accademia in Venice, which is only somewhat larger. Among the
18 paintings, eight repeat the type of architectonic composition which differ
among themselves only in the scenie arrangement. One of the Warsaw pictures
belongs to a group of four which are distinguished by identical architecture.22
The first of the paintings discussed as well as the one in Northampton are
identical. The other Warsaw painting has no analogous composition, while the
third of the group, currently in the castle in Pieskowa Skala, is one of three
similar yersions.
The construction of the Warsaw paintings, analysed in cross-sections of the
layers of paint,2" reveal many similarities to the construction of other 18th
century Venetian scenes; but it also reveals certain features which can be
for sharing with me her analysis of the condition of their preservation as well as their construction.
21 Cf. Toledano, op. cit.
22 The remainder are at Washington University, St. Louis, inv. No. 2069; Landesmuseum,
Hanover, inv. No. 179; and Northampton, England, (private collection).
23 LMA Conducted by Dr Maria Ligęza.
95