ART PIECE

Art Piece: Doge's Palace and Riva degli Schiavoni

Art Piece: Doge's Palace and Riva degli Schiavoni

Introduction

The painting “Doge's Palace and Riva degli Schiavoni” by Luca Carlevarijs is a broad sight of the Molo (jetty) from the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice. The oil on canvas painting is supposed to be painted around 700 AD. The centre exposes to the jetty with its two stonework pillars, and carries on in the remoteness on the wide path of the Riva degli Schiavoni, that reclines in front of viewers in the forefront. In engraving as in canvas, Carlevarijs achieved more than just an optical proof of the city memorials. He grasped the look of the Venice itself, much like a storyteller. While accomplishing this, Carlevarijs founded the complete 18th century (Settecento) the graphic and iconographical standards of the cityscape or Venetian veduta (Kozakiewicz, 1992).

Discussion

Luca Carlevarijs was a Mathematician as well as artist. He is a Venetian view painter who is best remembered for his series of large reception pieces. The Procession of the Earl of Manchester of 1707 is typical: it is composed like a school photograph with many small figures competing for attention. This vast work was not painted from life but was built up from fluent oil sketches whose bravura appealed to Canaletto (1697 - 1768). More influential in his own time was the series of 103 etchings (1703) which expanded the small number of stock Venetian views. These stimulated an interest in less familiar views of the city: a demand that was later met by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi. (Rizzi, 2007)

Venice was a preferred topic of view painters of Italy. Luca Carlevarijs was the foremost painter to make this genre famous by his illustrations and paintings. Carlevarijs lived on north-eastern Italy area called Udine. His preference for architecture and painting was expected derived from his father's work as a designer and painter. His engravings and paintings often included significant memorials of the theme city. (Wittkower, 1993)

Carlevarijs's name appeared on the list of the confraternity of Venetian painters from 1708 to 1713, in 1726 and in 1727. In 1712 he was in Conegliano, and in 1714 he worked in Udine as an architectural supervisor. That he had had some sort of mathematical training is clear from his portrait in old age, painted by Bartolommeo Nazari (1699-1758), which portrays him with a pair of dividers in addition to a pencil; the engraving after the portrait describes him not only as a Venetian painter but also as a 'Mathematicae cultor egregius'. His reputation for depicting views and events did not diminish and when the Imperial Ambassador made a visit to Venice in 1727, Carlevarijs was commissioned to record the scene; the result was Cesareo Conte di Colloredo Entering the Doge's Palace ( or Doge's Palace and Riva degli Schiavoni ). There is no proof that Canaletto ever learnt with him, but the junior painter must have been affected by Carlevarijs's pictures and ...