Second half of the 19th century, View of Piazza San Marco

Second half of the 19th century View of Piazza San Marco Oil on canvas, 69x99 cm With frame, 92x119 cm Signed lower right "Guarnieri" 1866 was a crucial year in the history of Venice: the period of long Austrian domination came to an end, and the city became part of the Kingdom of Italy. From the early months of the year, the expectations of Venetian patriots grew for the new European political climate, as documented by a series of publications that, under a harmless appearance (Austrian censorship remained strict), alluded to the upcoming unification with the Kingdom of Italy. After the Armistice of Cormons on August 12th and the peace signed in the Treaty of Vienna on October 3rd, popular joy exploded for the imminent liberation, which had seemed compromised after the heavy Italian defeats at Lissa and Custoza. Finally free from censorship, the Venetian press unleashed and flooded the city with a series of publications that addressed and debated the hottest topics of the moment: from the economic and moral damage caused to the city by the long Austrian rule to the abandonment of port activity and maritime trade in favor of Trieste, with the consequent economic and employment crisis; from the stagnation of industrial development due to a lack of public support initiatives and adequate infrastructure to the suffocating bureaucracy. Austrian depredations of important parts of the Venetian heritage were denounced (paintings, archival documents, manuscripts), detailed by the Swiss consul Victor Ceresole and other Venetian intellectuals, in the hope of a rapid and complete implementation of the clauses of the Treaty of Vienna, which provided for the restitution of works of art and stolen documents. After reunification, the enthusiasm for the future manifested itself in a remarkable production of projects and proposals presented to the new Italian administration for the large-scale relaunch of the city through the promotion of maritime trade, the containment of duties, the reactivation of the Arsenal, and the development of the railway network. To celebrate the reunification, Vittorio Emanuele was proposed the construction of large works, including new bridges over the Grand Canal of great visual impact, works never carried out but which testify to the intellectual fervor of the moment. The euphoria that spread through the city is evidenced by many celebratory compositions (popular choirs, songs, poems) that compensated for the smallness of the poetic level with the exhibition of a vibrant civic passion. The scene represented here could be set in 1866: Piazza San Marco appears embellished with a series of Italian flags, to celebrate the liberation of Venice from the long and troubled Austrian domination. The subject in question is found relatively frequently in Venetian painting of the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, as evidenced by the works of Vettore Zanetti, Cipriano Mannucci and Jean Belliure. The work in question constitutes a precious document for the reconstruction of a particularly relevant segment of the unitary parabola of the Kingdom of Italy. The technique of the painting, which is characterized by fast and undefined brushstrokes, is certainly influenced by the great masters of French Impressionism, whose notions spread in Italy starting from the eighties of the nineteenth century.