(Venice 1683–1754)
A Saint reading,
oil on canvas, 69.5 x 55.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Leo Planiscig (1887–1952), Vienna and Florence;
Collection of Elto Nardi, Milan, 1969 (according to a label on the reverse);
Private European collection

Exhibition:
Venice, Palazzo delle Biennali, Il Settecento italiano, 18 July – 10 October 1929, cat. no. 19 (as San Gerolamo leggente);
Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli, Venezia 700. Francesco Guardi e il suo tempo nelle raccolte private bergamasche, September-October 1969, cat. no. 2;
Venice, Ca’ Vendramin-Calergi, Giambattista Piazzetta, il suo tempo, la sua scuola, 27 May – 25 September 1983, cat. no. 12

Literature:
Il Settecento italiano, exhibition catalogue, Venice 1929, p. 46, cat. no. 19, not illustrated;
R. Pallucchini, L’arte di Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Bologna 1934, p. 23, illustrated tav. 14;
R. Pallucchini, M. Valsecchi, Venezia 700. Francesco Guardi e il suo tempo nelle raccolte private bergamasche, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo 1969, cat. no. 2;
R. Pallucchini, A. Mariuz, L’opera completa del Piazzetta, Milan 1982, p. 14, cat. no. 7;
U. Ruggeri, Giambattista Piazzetta, il suo tempo, la sua scuola, exhibition catalogue, Venice 1983, pp. 69-70, cat. no. 12;
M. A. Chiari Moretto Wiel, L’eredità di Piazzetta: volti e figure nell’incisione del Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Venice 1996, cited p. 19, cat. no. 10, not illustrated

This bust-length image of a saint is a significant example of Piazzetta’s dramatically framed images of single figure saints. The painting formerly belonged in the collection of Leo Planiscig in Vienna, where it was probably hung in a pair with Piazzetta’s famous Portrait of Giulia Lama, now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Madrid (inv. no. 316).

The present painting belongs to Piazzetta’s early mature period, around 1715–20. The image is constructed around the pronounced articulation of chiaroscuro typical of his works of this period, in which light played an important role and was deployed according to the principles of the later seventeenth century Venetian tenebrists or shadow painters.

The clear light falling from above throws the saint’s features into sharp contrast against the cavernously dark background. The dense impasto of ochre tones modulating the chiaroscuro is interrupted by the sharp contrast of the luminous whites of the saint’s under-robes. According to Mariuz (see literature) the choice of subject is an evident and intentional homage to Guercino’s art, as typified by the Saint Mark in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.

The closest temporal and stylistic point of comparison in Piazzetta’s production is the contemporary Susanna and the Elders in the Uffizi (inv. no. 8419) – indeed the head of one of the ‘elders’ seen in profile reveals very similar features to that of the saint seen in the work under discussion. A similar composition was also used in a Saint Matthew by Piazzetta which is known through an engraving by Marco Alvise Pitteri (1702–1786) which belonged to a series of Apostles (see Chiari Moretto Wiel in literature). Indeed, among Piazzetta’s most notable works are his highly individualised depictions of saints, all of different ages and physiognomies.

Giambattista Piazzetta played a key role in the renewal of Venetian Settecento paintings. While Sebastiano Ricci and Giambattista Tiepolo were responsible for the revival of the Venetian approach to colour through their rich and highly imaginative compositions, Piazzetta was part of the new trend which revived genre painting in the mid-eighteenth century. Born in Venice, Piazzetta stayed in Bologna for two years where he studied under Giovanni Maria Crespi, after which he returned permanently to Venice becoming one of the city’s leading Rococo painters.