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#0109
finish of the architectonic ruins and the foreground, revealing a greater
painterly ease.
Such compositions reąuired a great deal of workshop co-operation;
undercoating by the workshop and finishing by the master was a freąuent
practice in 18th century Venice. The fact that work on this type of composition
- caprices as well as the scenes of Venice - was rather hurried and mechanical
is testified by many of its features, beginning with the standard format it shares
with many other works and the great number of them now present in many
private collections and museums. The purchase of a smali easily portable
“scene” of Venice was part of the plan of a visit to Italy by 18th century
travellers, and for painters that was the motivation for their enormous
production. Many of the artistic features of the compositions from Michele
Marieschi’s workshop create the impression of hurried and sometimes automatic
work. Not only is the choice of themes and motifs rather limited and often
repeated, but their depiction is as well: the structure of the paint layers, the
binder, the manner of achieving specific artistic effects, chiefly texture and the
dispersion of light.
The initial examination of the layers of paint and the identification of
pigments in the two caprices revealed the similarities to the previously analysed
compositions by Marieschi. The ground is double-layered, the dark bottom
layer of the ground, although here it is not red but brown, coloured with
umber, reminiscent in its structure the ground appearing in the Venetian
scenes: there is a mixture of chalk and white lead. Successive layers of
paint are based, as in the previous pairs, on earth pigments and organie
colours. Initial analysis revealed the presence of stone-fruit gum, and thus the
binder used as well in the paintings discussed above. There are also fingertip
pressings, typical of MarieschTs workshop, in the texture of the underpainting,
constructing here the structure of the wali on which thin free strokes express
architectonic forms.
Such a thorough examination of both Caprices should help to determine
in futurę compositions from Marieschi’s workshop. The differences in the
construction of the first layer of the ground can be explamed additionally by
the market availability of paint materials in 18lh century Venice. Perhaps the
canvas in such a popular format as 35 x 55 cm were offered with variously
coloured groundings. A typical feature of this workshop could have been
successive layers of paint, sińce in all three pairs there is similar order and
structure, prepared in addition for specific artistic effects common to all the
Warsaw paintings.
Translated by Robert Kirkland
painterly ease.
Such compositions reąuired a great deal of workshop co-operation;
undercoating by the workshop and finishing by the master was a freąuent
practice in 18th century Venice. The fact that work on this type of composition
- caprices as well as the scenes of Venice - was rather hurried and mechanical
is testified by many of its features, beginning with the standard format it shares
with many other works and the great number of them now present in many
private collections and museums. The purchase of a smali easily portable
“scene” of Venice was part of the plan of a visit to Italy by 18th century
travellers, and for painters that was the motivation for their enormous
production. Many of the artistic features of the compositions from Michele
Marieschi’s workshop create the impression of hurried and sometimes automatic
work. Not only is the choice of themes and motifs rather limited and often
repeated, but their depiction is as well: the structure of the paint layers, the
binder, the manner of achieving specific artistic effects, chiefly texture and the
dispersion of light.
The initial examination of the layers of paint and the identification of
pigments in the two caprices revealed the similarities to the previously analysed
compositions by Marieschi. The ground is double-layered, the dark bottom
layer of the ground, although here it is not red but brown, coloured with
umber, reminiscent in its structure the ground appearing in the Venetian
scenes: there is a mixture of chalk and white lead. Successive layers of
paint are based, as in the previous pairs, on earth pigments and organie
colours. Initial analysis revealed the presence of stone-fruit gum, and thus the
binder used as well in the paintings discussed above. There are also fingertip
pressings, typical of MarieschTs workshop, in the texture of the underpainting,
constructing here the structure of the wali on which thin free strokes express
architectonic forms.
Such a thorough examination of both Caprices should help to determine
in futurę compositions from Marieschi’s workshop. The differences in the
construction of the first layer of the ground can be explamed additionally by
the market availability of paint materials in 18lh century Venice. Perhaps the
canvas in such a popular format as 35 x 55 cm were offered with variously
coloured groundings. A typical feature of this workshop could have been
successive layers of paint, sińce in all three pairs there is similar order and
structure, prepared in addition for specific artistic effects common to all the
Warsaw paintings.
Translated by Robert Kirkland