A selection of master drawings 2016

After a first trial in the area around the
Convent of Saint Catherine in Cannaregio,
from March 13 th 1843 the service was limited
to the area around St. Mark’s Square with the
installation of 128 gas lamps along the length
of the Piazza and the Piazzetta, as well as 49
alongside the Procuratie buildings. Similar
lamps also appear in paintings by Carlo
Canella, Federico Moja and Ippolito Caffi,
created after 1843. A very interesting stylistic
parallel can be drawn with a painting by
Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, which came onto
the market in 1996, depicting the Entrance
to the Library of Saint Mark’s. The painting
features a depiction of the elegant arched
facade similar to that in the drawing, and the
conception of the architectural complex is
similar too, as if the artist had ‘zoomed-in’ on
an area of the drawing and adjusted it slightly
to the right to focus on one fascinating detail.
There are no lamps in the painting, and it
must be acknowledged that Bison had left the
Veneto region in 1831 for Lombardy. Despite
these intriguing hypotheses, we are nonetheless
faced with an incongruent chronology which
is difficult to resolve.
Annalisa Scarpa