Pittore vedutista del XVIII secolo

Pair of views of Rotterdam: The Stock Exchange Palace / View of the canal with the old port 18th-century View Painter Oils on canvas 47 x 66 cm - with frame 56 x 75 cm Full details of the pair of works: https://www.antichitacastelbarco.it/it/prodotto/coppia-di-vedute-di-rotterdam--vedutista-700 This pleasing pair of paintings depicts two views of the city of Rotterdam, here investigated as lively documentaries of the customs and traditions of public life in the wealthy Dutch port city, as well as one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company, is an excellent example of 18th-century Vedutismo (view painting). In particular, in the first work we see the monumental Stock Exchange Palace (defined as Il Beurs), designed by the architect Adriaen van der Werff in Westnieuwland, initially a place intended for legislating on trade, where merchants-bankers met periodically to exchange securities and stipulate sales; it is located on the bank of the Nordblaak river and depicted with the Gaapers bridge in the foreground. The second work immortalizes the docking of the old port of Rotterdam, with a view in the foreground of the two city gates (the Wester Old Hoofdpoort on the left and the Ooster Oude Hoofdpoort on the right); in the background on the left is the St. Laurenskerk (Church of St. Lawrence), also called the Great Church of Rotterdam, the only medieval structure, while on the right is the English Church. Very well executed, distinguished by a strong luminosity and a chromatic range of bright colors, highlighted by the contrast between light and shadow, our canvases are a very interesting testimony of 18th-century Rotterdam, portraying two of the views that have historically had a great impact on the economic history of the city. We can attribute its authorship to an author from the mid-18th century, inspired by the pictorial style of the Italian Vedutisti and whose iconography was presumably drawn from the numerous prints with perspective views created through optical chambers. In particular, these views of Rotterdam have their iconographic origin in a collection of perspective prints of the most influential European cities, created by the engraver Johann Balthasar Probst (1732-1801), distinguished by a valuable finesse in the stroke, at the service of a perspective sense of undoubted value, and above all characterized by a marked Nordic taste. Descendant of a large family of engravers from Augsburg, Probst helped to make his workshop an important European publishing center between the 17th and 18th centuries, among the largest German publishers of prints in the first half of the 18th century. Despite his travels, including those in Italy, between Venice, Rome and Naples, not all the cities he portrayed were drawn from life but taken from earlier prints and drawings and filtered through North European clichés. Many of these engravings have been lost and are now difficult to find on the antique market. The original models of these works are now kept at the Rijksmuseum: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-1921-716 https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-1921-722