Venetian Vedute from the Intesa Sanpaolo Art Collection

Venetian vedute – or cityscapes – by Baroque Masters have arrived to Hungary from the art collection of Intesa Sanpaolo, CIB Bank’s parent bank. One important oil painting each by Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), Francesco Guardi, Hendrik Frans van Lint and Michele Marieschi – all displayed for the first time in Hungary. Intesa Sanpaolo’s 18th-century travelling chamber exhibition will be shown at the Hungarian National Gallery between 18 September and 14 October, 2018.

The chamber exhibition titled “Venetian Vedute from the Intesa Sanpaolo Art Collection” brings masterpieces of 18th-century Venetian baroque as yet unseen in Hungary to art lovers. Through the buildings and views represented by the oil paintings the viewer gets an insight into contemporary life in Venice while observing the different styles of these famous painters, their various artistic approaches to the same topic. While Canaletto, Guardi and Marieschi’s lives and careers were closely linked to Venice, the painter of the fourth Venetian veduta, Hendrik Frans van Lint of Antwerp probably never even set foot in the city. Instead of personal experiences, he presumably relied on his peers’ works painted in Venice when creating his own compositions.

Although Canaletto is probably the best-known baroque painter among these artists, Francesco Guardi, who did not enjoy the same status during his life, is of similar significance. The work of Marieschi, painted when the artist was still a young man, shows one of the most typical Venetian motifs, the Canale Grande, and Hendrik Frans van Lint’s canvas, developed with extraordinary meticulousness, represent the votive church of Santa Maria della Salute, situated at the mouth of the Grand Canal.