19th century, View of Venice with Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute

19th century View of Venice with Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute Oil on canvas, 41 x 61 cm Framed, 47.5 x 67 cm The painting in question, characteristic of the Vedutismo (view painting) movement that developed during the 19th century in Italy and abroad, depicts a view of Venice, with particular attention to Punta della Dogana and the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. The work captures the unique atmosphere of the lagoon city, with its sparkling waters, the gondolas that ply the canals, and the palaces that are reflected on the water. The term Vedutismo derived precisely from the main subject represented, the so-called vedute, that is, evocative panoramic views imprinted on canvas by the great painters of the time. They differed from previous landscape paintings precisely because of their strongly realistic nature, their almost maniacal attention to detail, and the total preponderance of the landscape element: before Vedutismo, in fact, landscapes were almost exclusively used as panoramas, that is, backgrounds for the representation of men, women, or animals, who remained at the center of the scene. This new artistic current, on the other hand, led the landscape to assume the role of protagonist of the work. The reasons for this success are to be found above all in the custom of the Grand Tour, the journey undertaken by the young scions of the European nobility to discover the continent, which had Italy as its preferred destination: Florence, Rome, Naples and, of course, Venice, the most fashionable city of the entire eighteenth century, where the English were enraptured by the "decadent Italian charm." The main proponents of Vedutismo were accustomed to using the camera ottica (camera obscura), a precious instrument that made it possible to represent reality in a lenticular way. In Venice, Vedutismo showed surprising signs of originality, projecting itself between anticipatory visions of Romanticism and the absolute fidelity to the real, natural or architectural data, thanks also to protagonists such as Canaletto, Francesco Guardi and Bernardo Bellotto. The marvelous landscapes on the lagoon and the unique monuments and palaces that populate it were, in fact, an unmissable destination for the nobles of the time and an irreplaceable subject for the Vedutismo painters. In this case, the artist concentrates his attention on the view of the Punta della Dogana (also known as Punta della Salute or Punta da Màr), a thin triangular tongue dividing the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, facing the San Marco Basin and hosting the iconic Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, designed by Baldassarre Longhena in the first half of the seventeenth century, which is clearly visible here. Its construction was born as a solemn vow of the Serenissima to the Virgin Mary, who is said to have founded the city in 421 AD, in thanksgiving for the end of the terrible plague epidemic of 1630-1631 that decimated the Venetian population: it is no coincidence that many artists decided to raise it to the protagonist of their canvases, manifesting through changing colors and romantic and decadent atmospheres this deep connection with a place of great devotion and spirituality.