(Venice 1730–1799)
A regatta on the Canal Grande at the Ponte di Rialto, Venice; and
A regatta at Santa Croce, Venice,
oil on canvas, each 70 x 97.5 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
possibly Querini collection, Campodipietra, Treviso, until 1810

The paintings depict regattas, rowing races typical of Venetian tradition. The first historical record of this type of event dates to the mid-13th century, when it was part of the “Festa delle Marie” celebrations, during the Carnival. In the following centuries the regattas were organized during the most important city events, public holidays or the arrival of illustrious guests (see G. Crovato, Regate e regatanti. Storia e storie della voga a Venezia, Venice, 2004).

In one of the two compositions, the boats are depicted as they pass beneath the Rialto Bridge, the oldest of the four bridges built on the Grand Canal. In the second work the competitors pass the Santa Croce district; this composition is particularly interesting because the church of Santa Croce was demolished in the first half of the nineteenth century, and can be seen here depicted on the left, behind the white bridge.

Gabriel Bella is best known for his lively and colourful depictions of Venice and its civil and religious festivities. His fame is linked above all to the extraordinary collection of sixty-seven of his paintings that belonged to the intellectual Andrea Querini (1710–1795), now preserved at the Fondazione Querini-Stampalia in Venice (M. Dazzi, E. Merkel, Catalogo della Pinacoteca della Fondazione scientifica Querini Stampalia, Vicenza, 1979, pp. 97-102).

These works were commissioned around 1779 to follow up fourteen canvases with interior scenes that had been produced a few years earlier by Pietro Longhi. Bella was comissioned to illustrate the important feasts and events of the Venetian Republic.

The artist worked for the Querinis for a long time and in 1791, paintings directly commissioned by that family were added to those inherited from Girolamo Ascanio Giustinian (1721–1791), which Bella had executed for Villa Giustinian in Campodipietra, Treviso. The overall size of the collection is documented in an inventory of 1796, when ninety-five paintings by the Venetian artist were recorded at the Querini residence in Treviso; several of these had been dispersed by 1810, when only sixty-seven works were registered, a number that corresponds to those now in the Fondazione Querini-Stampalia .

The two views presented here are Bella’s original inventions, not derived from corresponding engravings and not replicated among those now in the Fondazione Querini-Stampalia, so it is possible that they were among the works originally in Treviso between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.