Second Half Of The 19th Century, View Of St Mark’s Square

Second half of the 19th century

View of St Mark’s Square

Oil on canvas, cm 69x99

With frame, cm 92x119

Signed bottom right "Guarnieri"

1866 was a crucial year in the history of Venice: the period of long Austrian domination ended and the city became part of the Kingdom of Italy. Already from the beginning of the year, the expectations of the Venetian patriots for the new European political climate grew, as documented by a series of publications that, under an innocent appearance (Austrian censorship always remained strict), alluded to the forthcoming unification with the Kingdom of Italy. After the armistice of Cormons on 12 August and the peace signed in the treaty of Vienna on 3 October, popular joy exploded for the imminent liberation, which had seemed compromised after the heavy Italian defeats at Lissa and Custoza. Finally free from censorship, the Venetian press was raging and flooded the city with a series of publications that addressed and debated the hottest topics of the moment: from the economic and moral damages brought to the city from the long Austrian domination to the abandonment of the harbour activity and the maritime trade in favor of Trieste, with the consequent economic and employment crisis; the stagnation of industrial development due to lack of public support initiatives and adequate infrastructure for burdensome bureaucracy. The Austrian depredations of important parts of the Venetian heritage (paintings, archival documents, manuscripts) were denounced, illustrated in detail by the Swiss consul Victor Ceresole and other Venetian intellectuals, in the hope of a rapid and complete implementation of the clauses of the Treaty of Vienna, which provided for the return of stolen works of art and documents. After reunification, the enthusiasm for the future was expressed in a considerable production of projects and proposals presented to the new Italian administration for the relaunch in style of the city through the promotion of maritime trade, the reactivation of the Arsenal, the development of the railway network. To celebrate the reunification, Vittorio Emanuele was planning the construction of major works, including new bridges on the Grand Canal with great visual impact, works never realized but that testify to the intellectual fervour of the moment. The euphoria that spread in the city is witnessed by many celebratory compositions (folk choirs, songs, poems) that compensated for the meager level of poetry with the performance of a vibrant civic passion.

The scene depicted here could be set in 1866: St Mark’s Square is adorned with a series of Italian flags, designed to celebrate the liberation of Venice from the long and painful Austrian domination. The subject in question is found with relative frequency regarding Venetian painting of the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, as witnessed by the works of Vector Zanetti, Cipriano Mannucci and Jean Belliure. The work in question is a very valuable document for the reconstruction of a particularly important segment of the unitary parable of the Kingdom of Italy. The technique of painting, which is characterized by fast and indefinite brushstrokes, certainly suffers from the influence of the great masters of French impressionism, whose notions spread in the Italian sphere from the 1880s.