The Villa Loredan, near Treviso
Francesco Guardi
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This large and exceptionally luminous view of a villa in the Veneto was used by Francesco Guardi in a painting of approximately the same dimensions, now in a private collection. A fairly exact copy after this painting, drawn by Francesco himself or by his son Giacomo, is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1950.168). This copy bears an annotation that identifies the now-destroyed villa: "View of the Seat of S. E. Loredano at Paese near Treviso at present in the possession of John Strange Esq.r. N. B. grass ground within the Fence, without the post road from Treviso to Bassan". John Strange (1732-1799), a patron of the artist, was British Resident in Venice from November 1773 to 1790. Francesco made several drawings at the Villa Loredan. A smaller sketch of the entrance gate and façade is in the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (inv. 57.250). A view from the front windows of the villa is in the Fodor Museum, Amsterdam (repr. by Morassi 1975, no. 425), and a view from the back windows is in the Ashmolean Museum (WA1937.187). Byam Shaw has suggested that the Met’s drawing probably dates from 1778, when the painter undertook a journey from Venice to a family property in the Val di Sole. (F.R.)
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.