The Wedding With The Sea, Engraving After Canaletto, 18th Century.

The marriage with the sea is a ceremony of the ancient republic of Venice celebrated on Ascension Day. Symbolizing the domination of Venice on the waters it is manifested by the throwing of a golden ring in the Adriatic. This ritual gesture must be carried out by the doge of Venice on board the Bucentaure. These celebrations commemorate the conquest of Dalmatia in 997.

The engraving that we present is a work of Giovani Battista Brustolon (1726-1796) after a drawing by Giovani Antonio Canaletto (1712-1793) and kept in the British Museum in London.

The official website of the Louvre Museum, which holds a painting by Francisco Guardi (The Departure of the Bucentaurus to the Lido of Venice) identical in every way to this engraving, tells us that it is part of a series of twelve paintings painted between 1775 and 1780 after engravings by Brustolon made from drawings by Canaletto.

An apprentice in the workshop of Giuseppe Wagner, Brustolon was introduced to the art of engraving at an early age and became one of the great Venetian engravers of the 18th century. He is known for his suites of prints derived from the works of Canaletto, he illustrated many books.

Giovanni Antonio Canal was born in Venice on October 18, 1697, he died in Venice on April 19, 1768 better known under the name of Canaletto, it is a painter juvenileencèbre for its panoramas of Venice.
He is part with Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi of the most important representatives of the Italian "védutisme" (urban landscape painting).

We found on Wikipedia the following text: "His paintings combine the geometric rigor of perspective with a luminous representation of the play of light and shadow, combining the order of buildings with the bustle of life on the waters of the Grand Canal or the commemorative representation of solemn and lavish events. These representations are the result of a careful observation of the atmosphere, the choice of precise light conditions for each particular moment of the day and an objective drawing according to the principles of geometry.
The engraving is pasted on a cardboard, it presents some dirt and small spots as it is often the case.
Eighteenth century.
Size of the frame : 78 cm x 65,5 cm.

Ref: L8AA36PM9V