The Fenice Theater in Venice (recto); Fragment of a Larger Drawing Representing Part of a Column and a Cornice (verso)
Francesco Guardi
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This view of the Teatro La Fenice (Fenice Theater) is one of Francesco Guardi's last drawings. The Fenice, the work of the architect Giovanni Antonio Silva, was begun in 1790 and opened in April 1792, less than a year before Francesco Guardi's death. The drawing is well preserved, although James Byam Shaw has suggested that the accents of gray wash, used to strengthen the shadows in the foreground and on the theater and adjacent buildings, may have been added by Giacomo Guardi. In any case the son is entirely responsible for the drawing of architecture on the reverse of the sheet. A freer view of the Fenice seen from a different angle is in the Museo Correr, Venice (Rodolfo Pallucchini, I disegni del Guardi al Museo Correr di Venezia, Venice,1943, fig. 87; Antonio Morassi, Tutti i disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi, Venice, 1975, no. 404, fig. 406; Terisio Pignatti, Disegni antichi del Museo Correr di Venezia, vol. 3, Venice, 1983, no. 662, repr.). A further drawing by Francesco of the theater seen from yet another angle was sold in New York in 1980 (Sotheby Parke Bernet, January 9, 1980, no. 74, repr.; Antonio Morassi, Tutti i disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi, Venice, 1975, no. 406, fig. 409). It is interesting to note that on the reverse of this third drawing of the Fenice by Francesco there is also an architectural design in the hand of Giacomo Guardi.
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.