The history of the Venetian painting of the 18th century, analyzed by the greatest experts on the period, in terms of currents of taste and artistic personalities, with a fine selection of images.
The volume covers the themes of the view, the landscape and the portrait during the course of the 18th century; a century torn by inner contradictions, in parallel with the decline of the political and economic power of the Venetian Republic, and the development of a new modern sensibility that fully shared the intentions of the most advanced, enlightened parts of Europe.
Alongside artists like Ricci, Piazzetta, Tiepolo, Longhi, Canaletto, Bellotto and Guardi, we find numerous lesser figures who combine to weave the threads of a lively, often conflicted culture. This is the first of the schools of painting that can be called modern, thanks to the triumph of the creative personality unfettered by the dominant taste of the court and the society of the day.
The authors have limited their study exclusively to painting in Venice, in the strict sense of the city on the lagoon, and its spread in the Veneto: the history of a mode of chromatic expression that flourished magnificently in the 1700s.