The Return of the Bucentaur on the Festa dell'Ascensione

Private collection

historical

This work depicts the view of Venice as it was seen from the sea for centuries. Based on a veduta by Canaletto made in the 1730s, this view was to influence an entire generation of Venetian artists. It depicts all the most important religious and secular buildings in the city: the Doge's Palace, the Church of Saint Mark, the Campanile, as well as the Biblioteca Marciana and the Zecca, both designed by Jacopo Sansovino.

The Return of the Bucentaur on the Festa dell'Ascensione

About the Artist

Apollonio Domenichini

1715 – 1770

Italian painter, probably identical with the anonymous master named Master of the Langmatt Foundation, a name coming from the series of thirteen vedute owned by the Langmatt Foundation in Baden near Zurich. He is best known for his pictorial representations of views of Venice and its surroundings. His name is recorded in the records of the fraglia or guild of Venetian painters in 1757, and it often appears as the painter of many works sent by the art dealer Giovanni Maria Sasso to the English minister John Strange in the second half of the eighteenth century. He was active at least 1770. Domenichini painted numerous architectural capricci, fantastic landscapes and views of Venice - often based on prints - that are clearly indebted to the works of both Michele Marieschi (for the facture with patches of colour) and Canaletto (for the sharp rendering and lively figures). His extensive body of works includes rare vedute of Rome in which the artist was inspired by Canaletto's prototypes.

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