venetian art, 1600–1797 825
this is a work woven together in a perspectival web that brings to mind
Veronese but is tempered by a composure deriving from Padovanino.37
the Vow of Doge Nicolò Contarini to the Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani by
antonio Bellucci (Venice, 1654–Pieve di Soligo, 1726), in contrast, is the
fruit of mature artist who quickly affirmed himself in the Venetian context,
and then moved on to work in Vienna, various German courts, and Lon-
don. Finally, after his lengthy european wanderings, he retired to Soligo,
near treviso, where he would die. He animates his Vow of Doge Nicolò
Contarini with bright and luminous chromatic interplay, defining volumes
with sharp draftsmanship and a harmonious organization of forms among
the monumental architecture, while “the light which illuminates via its
reflection” seems to echo the dark tastes of antonio Zanchi.38
in the early 1680s, antonio Molinari (Venice, 1655–1704) had freed
himself from the style of the tenebrosi of his master Zanchi through the
elaboration of an effective synthesis between Baroque tension and clas-
sicist measure. His style can well be appreciated in a work which draws
effectively on the style of Luca Giordano, a Struggle between the Centaurs
and the Lapiths, completed in the late 1690s for the Correr in San Giovanni
Decollato and placed together with Gregorio Lazzarini’s Orpheus punished
by the Bacchantes and antonio Bellucci’s Hercules and Onfale, all presently
conserved in Ca’ rezzonico.39
Quadraturismo
Despite remaining a multicolored city during the 17th century, thanks to
its frescoed façades, Venice continued for much of the century to prefer
canvases or “cuori d’oro” (engraved and gilded skins) for its interiors. if
we were to believe the words of the merchant Simon Giogalli, Luca Gior-
dano’s agent in Venice, painters in the city on the lagoon in 1692 “who
with oils can pass for expert painters,” in fresco “appear ridiculous, in fact
here such a style of painting is little used, as the plaster does not hold
due to the air’s saltiness.”40 this testimony—certainly conditioned by the
merchant’s interest in promoting the abilities of the neapolitan school of
frescoers—should not be given too much credence, in any case, once we
37 Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana, p. 378.
38 Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana, p. 371.
39 alberto Craievich, Antonio Molinari (Soncino, 2005).
40 Cited in Lanfranco ravelli, “Un pittore partenopeo a Bergamo: nicola Malinconico
e le sue ‘Historiae Sacrae’ per Santa Maria Maggiore,” Atti dell’Ateneo di Scienze Lettere ed
Arti di Bergamo 48 (1987–88, 1989), p. 117.