FRANCESCO ALBOTTO
(Venice 1721 - 1757)
A ruined Renaissance Gateway with a Statue of a Horse and a Sarcophagus on Pedestals by a River
Oil on canvas
51 x 72.8 cm
Provenance:
Estate of Mr and Mrs Jesse S. Charlton, U.S.A.
As is the case with many of Albotto's works, the composition derives from a painting by his master Michele Marieschi (1710-1743).1 Another version, sold at Sotheby's, Monte Carlo, 8 December 1984, lot 329, may also be by Marieschi. Six others are listed by Mario Manzelli as the work of Albotto, including versions in the Galleria Campori, Modena, and in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nîmes.2 The figures in this painting, apart from the woman in the foreground, differ from all the other versions, as does the dog towards the left.
1. Sold at Christie's, London, 10 July 1992, lot 32; exhibited Belluno, Palazzo Crepadona, Marco Ricci e il paesaggio veneto del Settecento, 1993, pp. 277-8, no. 92, illustrated in colour; F. Montecuccoli degli Erri and F. Pedrocco, Michele Marieschi: La vita, l'ambiente, l'opera, Milan, 1999, pp. 398-9, no. 169, illustrated in colour.
2. M. Manzelli, Michele Marieschi e il suo alter-ego Francesco Albotto, Venice, 1991, pp. 101-2, nos. A.62.1-5 and 7, pls. A.62.3-4; 2nd ed., Venice, 2002, pp. 145-6, nos. A.62.01-05 and 07, figs. A.62.01 and 03-04. For an illustration of the painting in Nîmes, see the catalogue of the exhibition Venise au dix-huitième siècle: Peintures, dessins et gravures des collections françaises, Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 1971, p. 100, no. 118, as Michele Marieschi.