(Venice 1712–1793)
The Angels Appearing to Abraham
oil on canvas, 72.5 x 92.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection

The present painting, a refined and typical work by one of Venice’s leading settecento masters, relates to a series of four paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art, first published in 1951 by Antonio Morassi as works by Gianantonio Guardi (see A. Morassi, Conclusioni su Antonio e Francesco Guardi, in: Emporium CXIV, 1951, p. 208). Morassi repeated his opinion on the Guardi family of painters from 1973 in his monograph (see A. Morassi, Guardi, Venezia 1973, I, pp. 83, 309, cat. 13, II, fig. 8). In 1965 however, during the large exhibition dedicated to the Guardi in Venice, Pietro Zampetti proposed to attribute the paintings to Gianantonio’s younger brother Francesco instead (see P. Zampetti, Mostra dei Guardi, Venezia 1965, p. 120). This attribution was confirmed by Dario Succi in 1993 (see D. Succi, Francesco Guardi. Itinerario dell’avventura artistica, Cinisella Balsamo 1993, p. 11, fig. 2, p. 222). The pictures in general terms betray the loose style of the Guardi brothers, but do not show the marked rococo characteristics that are typical for Gianantonio. The nervous touch, the use of contours, the subtle, clear tonality and the facial types point instead to the art of Francesco Guardi, who, like his older brother, started his career by copying paintings by other masters.

The present painting showing Abraham visited by the Angels repeats the composition of a canvas by the Veronese painter, Antonio Balestra (1666–1740), dating from 1717 and originally in the Oratorio della Trinita’ in the church of San Biagio in Verona. That canvas is lost, but it is recorded in a print by Balestra’s pupil Pietro Rotari (see M. Polazzo, Antonio Balestra. Pittore Veronese 1666–1740, Verona 1978, pp. 96–97). It is not easy to date the pictures by Francesco Guardi, but Aikema suggested that the painting should be dated to the same period as the Cleveland pictures, around 1750–55.

We are grateful to Bernard Aikema for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original and for his help in cataloguing.