ALESSANDRO LOTTI
(active c. 1818 – c. 1850)
Venice: The Ground Floor of the Zecca with a Family being shown the Coin Presses
Oil on paper laid on canvas - 15 ⅞ x 21 inches (40.2 x 53.3 cm)
Signed or inscribed on the original stretcher ‘Proprietà di Alessandro Lotti’
Alessandro Lotti was a student in the Scuola di Ornato in the Accademia di Belli Arti di Venezia. According to the Atti per la distribuzione de’ premii he received prizes for his work in August 1818 and August 1820. By the early 1840s we know from the Almanaco per le Provincie soggette All’imperiale Regio governo di Venezia that he was working as a Bollatore in the Direzione della Zecca in Venice.
Another painting by Lotti, including the campanile of Santa Marta in Venice, is in the Museo Correr, see.
Larger than this painting (49 x 68 cm.), that is said to be of 1842.
Today the courtyard glimpsed through the windows to the left is the main reading room of the Biblioteca Marciana.