Jb Van Moer (1819-1884) The Zen Chapel Of Saint Mark's Basilica In Venice

Jean-Baptiste VAN MOER
(1819 Brussels - 1884 Ixelles)
The Zen (or Saint-Zenon) chapel of the Saint-Marc basilica in Venice
Watercolor
H. 50 cm; L. 65 cm
Signed and dated lower left, 1866

Related work:
Painting exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1861, under the number 2257, titled The Saint-Zénon Chapel, at Saint-Marc in Venice, then at the Exhibition Universal of London in 1862, of which our watercolor is a reprint with a few variations

Provenance:
Sale after the death of the artist, Brussels, Galerie Saint-Luc, 12 rue des Finances, 9/10/11/12 December 1885, Experts Le Roy and de Brauwer ; lot 25, titled Chapel of Saint-Zenon, Saint-Marc church, watercolor, 46x61 cm

Student of François Bossuet (1798-1889) at the Brussels Academy, Van Moer adopted his master's specialty: urban landscapes and historical monuments, treated in almost photographic detail with an excellent rendering of the atmosphere, exterior or interior. A great colorist, conscientious and tireless artist, he received commissions from Queen Victoria and King Leopold II of Belgium, and exhibited 13 paintings at the Paris Salon between 1853 and 1865. Van Moer traveled to many countries, including France, Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Egypt and Palestine, Venice remaining his favorite theme. He succeeded in representing the city of the Doges with perhaps even more truthfulness and poetry than Wyld, Joyant or Ziem had done before him. In this composition created in 1861, Van Moer chose as his subject a particularly little-known place, with almost non-existent iconography (even in photography today), located at the southwest corner of Saint Mark's Basilica. This Saint-Zenon, Saint-Zeno, Zen chapel (there are a multitude of names or spellings) owes its name to Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Zeno (c.1439-1501), from a Venetian family. His uncle Pope Paul II allowed him to quickly rise through the ranks of the Church and to be named cardinal at the age of less than thirty in 1468. His duties took him throughout Italy, but he was never stationed in his city native. When he died in 1501, he asked the doge to be buried in the basilica in exchange for 5,000 gold ducats. As tradition does not authorize any burial in the monument, this request received implacable opposition from the authorities. The solution found was to bury Cardinal Zeno in the covered narthex, a non-sacred place in the basilica. The left door of the chapel opens towards the vestibule of the basilica, the one at the back towards the baptistery. The bronze tomb, completed in 1521, is the plural work of the architect-sculptor Antonio Lombardo and the founders Alessandro Leopardi and Campanato, and of different hands in each sculpted element (up to the ciborium which overlooks the altar). Van Moer perfectly recreates the dark and mysterious aspect of this place with a funerary vocation.