XV - Works On Paper - Marty de Cambiaire (English)

Marco Ricci
Belluno 1676-1730
13
A Winter Landscape
Gouache on paper
318 x 460 mm (15 x 18 1 /2 in.)
EXHIBITED
London and New York, Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., An
Exhibition of Master Drawings and Paintings, 2010,
cat. 14.
Marco Ricci probably started his training in the studio
of his uncle Sebastiano in the late 1690s. Involved in
the murder of a gondolier in a tavern brawl, the young
artist fled to Split in Dalmatia, where he entered the
studio of a local landscape painter 1 . Following four
years of exile, he returned to Venice in 1700 and
found work as a painter of theatrical sceneries. In
1708, he accompanied Charles Montagu, 4 th Earl of
Manchester, on his journey back to London. Their
detour through the Netherlands enabled Ricci to
discover Dutch Art, whose influence is noticeable
in the artist’s landscapes, together with that of the
models of the great 17 th century landscape painters
such as Salvator Rosa, Gaspar Dughet and Claude
Lorrain. In England, he painted scenes for the opera
and produced the lively and amusing caricatures
of singers and other participants (Royal Collection
at Windsor). Between 1709 and 1710, he also
worked at Lord Manchester’s house in London
and at Kimbolton, and at Castle Howard. The artist
remained in London until 1716, when he moved
back definitively to his native town. There, Marco
Ricci executed many stage designs and in the 1720s,
he worked in conjunction with his uncle Sebastiano
on numerous projects. The two relatives found
their most important patron in Joseph Smith, who
collected 42 paintings, 150 drawings of landscapes,
theatre designs and caricatures, many of which
were engraved in 1743 by Anton Maria Zanetti.
Marco Ricci also worked as an engraver, producing
etchings of landscapes, of which only 33 examples
are known. Both his etchings and his painted
landscapes proved crucial in the development of
the genre in the 18 th century. His art is believed to
have influenced such artists as Canaletto, Michele
Marieschi, Francesco Guardi, Giuseppe Zais,
Francesco Zuccarelli and Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
About half of Ricci’s output consists of some 150
small (except for a handful of them, their dimensions
are about 12 by 18 inches) brightly coloured and
luminous landscapes, painted in tempera, primarily
on kidskin or, less commonly, on paper.
The present tempera is a splendid example of a
winter landscape in which paint is delicately and
masterfully applied in bright tonalities and strong
colours, thus producing a particularly smooth surface
and richly textured finish, and skilfully rendering
the ‘frozen’ atmosphere of the scene. A large tree
stands in the middle of the composition and its dried
up branches covered in hoarfrost are so delicately
and meticulously painted as to appear almost
‘crystallised’ by the biting cold. The snow-covered
ground is animated by luminous figures gathering
wood, painted in daubs of vivid red and blue. The
influence of Dutch artists not merely confined to the
subject of this painting, but also reveals itself in small
details, such as the group of men breaking ice in the
middle of the river. Other motifs, for example, the two
horsemen wrapped up in their tabards, are typical
of the artist’s figure repertoire. This particular motif
recurs in three other snowy landscapes by Ricci. Two,
respectively in a London Private Collection 2 , and
in the Royal Collection at Windsor 3 , are executed
in the same medium as the present work, whereas
the other, in the Locatello Collection in Venice 4 , is
painted in oils. Other motifs, such as the frozen river,
the hoar frosted trees and the figures gathering wood
recur in the other two temperas, whereas the motif of
the cart led by two oxen is repeated in the painting at
Windsor. All three works are typical of the mature style
of the artist and dated by Annalisa Scarpa Sonino in
her monograph on the artist to the turn of the second
and third decade of the 18 th century. A similar dating
seems also appropriate for the present work.
In these winter landscapes, the artist’s best
achievement perhaps lies in his atmospheric use of
colour, which is due to his remarkable understanding
of Nature.
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