View Of The Camp San Zanipolo

19th century

View of the camp San Zanipolo

Oil on canvas, cm 56 x 91

With frame, cm 82 x 116

Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, in Venetian jargon known as Campo San Zanipolo, is one of the largest camps in Venice, located in the Castello district, on the border with San Marco. In the center of the field, on a base of polychrome marble, there is the equestrian monument dedicated to Bartolomeo Colleoni work of Verrocchio. The imposing church of Saints John and Paul, also called San Zanipolo in Venetian dialect, closes the corner with the Scuola Grande di San Marco that develops also along the foundations of the adjacent river: at this important place of worship are housed some of the most famous masterpieces of Venetian art, first of all the Polyptych of San Vincenzo Ferrer, executed by Giovanni Bellini in 1464. At the side of the church there is the main entrance and, therefore, the facade of the city hospital. It is this striking view of the city that is depicted in this beautiful nineteenth century painting. The work captures the unique atmosphere of the lagoon city, with its sparkling waters, the gondolas that cram the canals and the palaces that are reflected on the water. The term Vedutismo was derived precisely from the main subject represented, the so-called views, that is suggestive panoramas imprinted on canvas by the great painters of the time. They differed from the previous landscape paintings precisely because of their highly realistic nature, their almost maniacal attention to detail and the total preponderance of the landscape element: prior to vedutism, In fact, the landscapes were almost exclusively used as panoramas, that is, as a backdrop for the representation of men, women or animals, which remained at the centre of the scene. This new artistic trend brought the landscape to take the role of protagonist of the work. This new artistic trend brought the landscape to take the role of protagonist of the work. The reasons for this success are to be found mainly in the custom of the Grand Tour, the journey made by young sons of the European nobility to discover the continent, which had as its favorite destination Italy: Florence, Rome, Naples and obviously Venice, The most fashionable city of the whole eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where the British were delighted by the "decadent Italian charm". The main proponents of vedutism used to use the optical camera, a very valuable tool that allowed to represent reality in lenticular way. In Venice, vedutism showed surprising signs of originality, projecting itself between anticipatory visions of romanticism and absolute fidelity to the real, natural or architectural data. The wonderful landscapes on the lagoon and the unique monuments and palaces that inhabit it were, in fact, a must-see destination for the nobles of the time and an irreplaceable subject for vedutist painters. The suggestive view of San Zanipolo has attracted the attention of various artists between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: just think of Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi and Domenichini.