Canal

The Coronation of the Doge on the Scala dei Giganti

Pen and brown ink and three shades of grey wash,
heightened with touches of white over black chalk,
within original brown ink framing lines.
389 by 554 mm. (15 ¹/₄ x 21 ³/₄ in.)

Provenance

Probably commissioned by Lodovico Furlanetto, Venice; discovered by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet, in a bookseller’s in Venice probably from Furlanetto, circa 1787-89; thence by descent at Stourhead, Wiltshire to Sir Henry Ainslie Hoare, 5^th Bt (1824-1894); Stourhead Heirlooms sale, London, Christie’s, 2 June 1883, lot 28, to Grindley, on behalf of a member of the Hoare family; A.H Hoare, Ovington Park, Hampshire, and by descent in the Hoare family until 2005; Private Collection (in recent years on loan to the Dept of Prints and Drawings, British Museum).

Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Disegni Veneti di collezioni inglesi, 1980, cat.111; Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Canaletto. Disegni-Dipinti-Incisioni (catalogue by Alessandro Bettagno), 1982, pp. 51-2, no. 66

Sir R. Colt Hoare, Bart, Modern Wilts – Hundred of Mere, London 1822, p.75; W.G. Constable & J.G. Links, Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), first edition, 1976, p.483, no.632; 3rd edition, Oxford 1989, vol. II, p. 528, no. 632, reproduced vol. I, pl. 115.

LITERATURE for the series of Feste Ducali drawings by Canaletto:

Sir R. Colt Hoare, Modern Wilts – Hundred of Mere, London, 1822, p. 75; K.T. Parker, The Drawings of Antonio Canaletto in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, Oxford and London, 1948, p. 18; F.J.B. Watson, Canaletto, London, 1949, pp. 20-1; J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Francesco Guardi, London, 1951, p. 19; F.J.B. Watson, Catalogue of the exhibition Eighteenth Century Venice, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1951, p. 12, under no. 5;

V. Moschini, Canaletto, London and Milan, 1954, pp. 48-50; V. Moschini, Francesco Guardi, London, 1956, p. 28; R. Pallucchini, La Pittura Veneziana del Settecento, Venice and Rome, 1960, p. 111; W.G. Constable, Canaletto, Oxford, 1962 (and subsequent editions revised by J.G. Links), I, p. 152, pl. 115; II, nos. 630 and 632;

V. Moschini, Canaletto [The Great Masters of Drawing], Milan, 1963, p. 14 (Italian ed., Milan, 1978, p. 13); P. Zampetti, Catalogue of the exhibition I Vedutisti Veneziani del Settecento, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 10 June – 15 October 1967, p. 180, under no. 83, and p. 182, under no. 84; Catalogue of the exhibition Fantasy and Reality in Eighteenth Century Venice: An Exhibition of Fine Venetian Engravings, Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, 19 April – 14 May 1971, under nos. 184 and 186; P. Rosenberg in the catalogue of the exhibition Venise au dix-huitième siècle: Peintures, dessins et gravures des collections françaises, Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 21 September – 29 November 1971, p. 77; P. Zampetti, A Dictionary of Venetian Painters. Volume 4. 18^th Century, Leigh-on-sea, 1971, p. 24; F. Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century, London, 1973, p. 163, under no. K433;

T. Pignatti, Catalogue of the exhibition Venetian Drawings from American Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; and the St. Louis Art Museum, 1974-5, p. 50, under no. 104; F. Rusk Shapley, National Gallery of Art, Washington: Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, Washington, 1979, I, pp. 106-7;

C. Lazzaro, Catalogue of the exhibition Eighteenth-Century Italian Prints, Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, California, 16 December 1980 – 2 March 1981, p. 19, under no. 20; J.G. Links, Canaletto, Oxford, 1982, pp. 212, 215 and 222; 2^nd ed., London, 1994, pp. 233, 235 and 239; D. Succi in the catalogue of the exhibition Da Carlevarijs ai Tiepolo: Incisori veneti e friuliani del Settecento, Palazzo Attems, Gorizia, and Museo Correr, Venice, 1983, pp. 81 and 89, under no. 59; A. Corboz, Canaletto. Una Venezia immaginaria, Milan, 1985, II, p. 491, fig. 525 (the Scala dei Giganti), and p. 767, nos. D 221 and D 223, both illustrated. A. Bettagno, ‘Fantasy and Reality in Canaletto’s Drawings’ in the catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 30 October 1989 – 21 January 1990, p. 50; K. Baetjer and J.G. Links in ibid., pp. 347-8; M. Azzi Visentini in the catalogue of the exhibition Francesco Guardi: Vedute Capricci Feste, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, 28 August – 21 November 1993, pp. 177 and 188; G. Knox, ‘Four Canaletti for the Duke of Bolton. And two ‘Aide-memoire’’, Apollo, CXXXVIII, No. 380 (New Series), October 1993, p. 249; D. Succi, Francesco Guardi: Itinerario dell’avventura artistica, Milan, 1993, p. 83; J.G. Links in the catalogue of the exhibition The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994-5, p. 243; R. Bromberg in ibid., p. 440; J.G. Links in the catalogue of the exhibition Splendori del Settecento Veneziano, Venice, 26 May – 30 July 1995, p. 283; A. Perissa Torrini in ibid., p. 438, under no. 160; R. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Settecento, I, ed. M. Lucco et al., Milan, 1995, pp. 507-8; F. Pedrocco, Canaletto and the Venetian Vedutisti, New York, 1995, p. 70; J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800 compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, New Haven and London, 1997, p. 504; L. Urban in the catalogue of the exhibition Venezia da Stato a Mito, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 30 August – 30 November 1997, p. 360, under no. 41; F. Magani in the catalogue of the exhibition Giuseppe Bernardino Bison pittore e disegnatore, Chiesa di San Francesco, Udine, 24 October 1997 – 15 February 1998, pp. 47 and 210, under no. 21; D. Bomford and G. Finaldi, Catalogue of the exhibition Venice through Canaletto’s Eyes, National Gallery, London, York City Art Gallery, and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 1998-9, p. 53;

N. Volle in the catalogue of the exhibition Settecento: Le siècle de Tiepolo. Peintures italiennes du XVIII siècle exposées dans les collections publiques françaises, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, and Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, 2000-1, p. 116 (incorrectly stating that all ten of the series of drawings by Canaletto are in the British Museum); T. Pignatti, Antonio Canal detto il Canaletto, ed. Florence, 2001, pp. 172, 176 and 180.

J. Hedley, ‘Visions of Venice: Four newly conserved Venetian views by Francesco Guardi (1712-93) at the Wallace Collection’, Apollo, CLV, No. 481 (New Series), March 2002, p. 42; J. Hedley, Visions of Venice: The conservation of five Venetian view paintings at the Wallace Collection, Newnham, 2002, p. 11; F. Pedrocco, Visions of Venice: Paintings of the 18^th Century, London and New York, 2002, p. 203; S. Duffy and J. Hedley, The Wallace Collection’s Pictures: A Complete Catalogue, London, 2004, p. 68; B.A. Kowalczyk, Catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto: Il trionfo della veduta, Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, 12 March – 19 June 2005, p. 264.