Harbour with Capriccio
Artist/Maker
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 142 x 213 cm h x w x d: Ram 151 x 222 x 7 cm
Inventory numberNM 833
AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum (Martelli 1804)
Other titlesTitle (sv): Hamnstad med fantasiarkitektur Title (en): Harbour with Capriccio
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 84: FORMER INV. NOS.: 380 (M. 1804); KM 563. TECHNICAL NOTES: The support is a single piece of coarse, densely woven, plain-weave linen fabric. It has been glue-lined and mounted on a non-original stretcher. Due to the lining process, the structure of the original canvas has been made more visible and is seen as a pattern of squares. The ground is red. The paint layer is very abraded, with extensive retouching. The varnish is thick, uneven and yellowed. The painting is in poor condition. Documented restorations: 1921: Cleaning. Several holes mended. Stretching and varnish; 1955: Severe dent in the canvas and damaged paint were adjusted. Cleaning and varnish; 1987: Cleaning. Consolidation of flaking colour. PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sander 1872–76, III, p. 129, no. 380. This is one of the largest paintings from the Martelli Collection. It has suffered from being relined and is preserved in rather a poor condition. The scene is a harbour surrounded by classical architecture, depicted in a deep perspective. In the inventory from 1804 the painting is wrongly entitled “Campo Vaccino”,¹ as the architecture is a capriccio of fantasy buildings: a temple resembling the Pantheon, a ruined triumphal arch, and a round temple in the background close to the vanishing point. In the foreground, people are engaged in various activities. The capriccio is inspired by the paintings of Claude Lorrain and other Northern painters such as Jan Baptist Weenix, Jan Lingelbach and Claes Berchem. Daniel Prytz has noted the resemblances with paintings by the Florentine artist Alessandro Salucci, and there are several similar harbour capriccios in museums such as the Louvre and the Hermitage. Recently a smaller replica of this very painting was on sale at Sotheby’s,² and there is no reason to question an attribution to Salucci. Salucci was one of the first artists to specialize in this genre and gained a reputation for his large canvases. He often collaborated with the Dutch artist Jan Miel, and it is possible that the latter painted the figures in the foreground. The ruined classical buildings, together with more contemporary profane buildings drawn in a clear linear perspective, became very popular in Rome in the mid 17th century. The shield crowning the portal of the temple building in the foreground depicts the papal arms of Pope Innocent X, which dates the painting to the period of Giovanni Battista Pamphilj’s papacy, 1644–55. je 1 Sander 1872–76, III, p. 129, no. 380. 2 Alessandro Salucci, Veduta ideate di un porto con monumenti classici, Milan, Sotheby’s, 15 December 2009, Old Masters Paintings, no. 36.[End]
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TechniquePainting
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