Best work by the first distinguished painter of Venetian Veduta and one of the earliest practitioners of this painting type.
Born in Udine, Carlevaris (1663 – 1730) moved to Venice at the age of sixteen. The present work, consisting of 103 engravings, is the most complete survey of the fabriche of the city ever produced and served as a model for Venetian view painters throughout the XVIII century. It is the first series of Venetian views conceived of as a whole and consists of predominantly frontal views of the most important buildings and squares of Venice, particularly the Piazza San Marco. It was intended as an accurate description of Venice's beauty for foreigners. Amongst the most striking views are those of the private palaces (plates 65-103).
'Carlevaris often achieves extraordinary clarity and appeal by the almost modern economy of his line, especially when illustrating the more modest structures that often flank the patrician palaces on which the series is focused. The large blank wall areas soaked with light, the planarity of his of his architectural rendering, and his sky and water, were to be influential not only on his immediate contemporaries, such as Canaletto and Visenti, but also later printmakers like Charles Meryon.' (Millard).
A wide-margined copy of the third edition with the plates numbered 1-101 in second state, and plates 102 and 103 numbered on the left in first state.
Description
Oblong folio (30 x 42.2 cm), engraved title, dedication to Doge Luigi Mocenigo dated 27 May 1703, 103 numbered etched views by Carlevaris, puncture marks to the centre-verso of plate 103 running through to plate 95, with associated small holes to plates 100-103, occasional faint soiling and browning, contemporary panelled calf, gilt spine with red morocco label, speckled edges; rebacked preserving spine.
Provenance: Emily, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1819-1895; engraved armorial bookplate).
Bibliography
Berlin Kat 2682.