840 massimo favilla, ruggero rugolo, and dulcia meijers
commissioners. a number of the ablest painters of Venice sought their
fortunes abroad. as international decorators, painters such as antonio
Pellegrini, Jacopo amigoni, and the two ricci, Marco and Sebastiano, and
later on Canaletto, tiepolo, and also rosalba Carriera—whom Orlandi
mentioned already in 1704 as “degna miniatrice”77—were called on else-
where, outside of their country. each left for a variety of different reasons.
it is remarkable to note that Pellegrini, amigoni, and rosalba were ulti-
mately more successful abroad or with foreigners, probably on account
of their French-like rococo style, whereas ricci, Canaletto, and tiepolo
exported a style identified par excellence with Venice. especially anto-
nio Pellegrini, who can be recognized by his lightness and gaiety of touch
and his palette of rose, yellow, pale green, pink, and violet, conquered a
wide-ranging circle of commissioners in england, Germany, Flanders, Hol-
land, austria, and Bohemia. His travels exposed him to a variety of foreign
influences, the greatest being that of the Flemish baroque artist rubens.78
the older Sebastiano ricci was no less itinerant. His career and his quite
unsettled and animated existence brought him in his earlier years to vari-
ous italian cities and to the court of Vienna. He also accepted commis-
sions in London and surroundings and left england for Paris, again in the
company of his nephew Marco. in all his peregrinations, ricci worked for
patrons in the highest echelon of society.79 With the exception of tiepolo,
it seems that a simple need for internationalization in an increasingly pro-
vincial city—beyond the lack of opportunities at home—must have trig-
gered mobility as well. Moreover, the demand abroad for international
decorators was peaking in these early decades.
the cycle of 12 paintings depicting the apostles made for the presbytery
of the church of San Stae is a telling example of the initial happy coex-
istence of the various styles of both established and upcoming artists, of
the old and younger generation, of those that continued working in the
classicist style, or in the more dramatic manner, with those that intro-
duced new aesthetic and coloristic effects. niccolò Bambini and Gregorio
Lazzarini, tiepolo and Piazzetta, antonio Pellegrini and Sebastiano ricci
77 Pellegrino antonio Orlandi, Abecedario pittorico [.. .] corretto e notabilmente di nuove
notizie accresciuto da Pietro Guarienti (Venice, 1753).
78 George Knox, Antonio Pellegrini 1675–1741 (Oxford, 1995).
79 the first complete monograph of ricci was Jeffery Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci (Hove,
1976); see also annalisa Scarpa Sonino, Sebastiano Ricci. Catalogue raisonné (Milan, 2006);
and exh. Cat. (Venice, 2010), Le arti di Piranesi: architetto, incisore, antiquario, vedutista,
designer, ed. Michele De Lucchi, adam Lowe, and Giuseppe Pavanello (Venice, 2010).