Oil painting, 'Capriccio with Roman Ruins, a Pyramid and Figures', Francesco Guardi, 1760-1770

A landscape with an arched Roman ruin supported by Corinthian columns through which appears a church in the background, a pyramid and a Roman statue at mid-distance on the left with small figures digging in the foreground.

Bequeathed by John Jones

Bequeathed by John Jones, 1882
Ref : Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860. Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990. p.xix-xx

John Jones (1800-1882) was first in business as a tailor and army clothier in London 1825, and opened a branch in Dublin 1840. Often visited Ireland, travelled to Europe and particularly France. He retired in 1850, but retained an interest in his firm. Lived quietly at 95 Piccadilly from 1865 to his death in January 1882. After the Marquess of Hertford and his son Sir Richard Wallace, Jones was the principal collector in Britain of French 18th century fine and decorative arts. Jones bequeathed an important collection of French 18th century furniture and porcelain to the V&A, and among the British watercolours and oil paintings he bequeathed to the V&A are subjects which reflect his interest in France.

See also South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks. The Jones Collection. With Portrait and Woodcuts. Published for the Committee of Council on Education by Chapman and Hall, Limited, 11, Henrietta Street. 1884.
Chapter I. Mr. John Jones. pp.1-7.
Chapter II. No.95, Piccadilly. pp.8-44. This gives a room-by-room guide to the contents of John Jones' house at No.95, Piccadilly.
Chapter VI. ..... Pictures,... and other things, p.138, "The pictures which are included in the Jones bequest are, with scarcely a single exception, valuable and good; and many of them excellent works of the artists. Mr. Jones was well pleased if he could collect enough pictures to ornament the walls of his rooms, and which would do no discredit to the extraordinary furniture and other things with which his house was filled."

Historical significance: The present painting appears to be a characteristic example of Francesco Guardi's production of 'capriccio' pieces and forms a pendant with 489-1882. It shows an imaginary landscape with an arched Roman ruin through which one can distinguish a church; a small pyramid and a Roman statue are on the left while the seashore appears behind in the distant background. Small figures, simply dressed, are digging between the ruins partially covered with branches and foliage and in the foreground. These are usually called 'treasure seekers' and are recurrent in Guardi's 'capricci' witnessing the search for Antiquities on archeological sites, which would be subsequently sold to private collectors. The colour scheme, dominated by a silvery green tonality, provides the picture with diffused brightness enhanced by the play of light and shade projected against the ruins. A wide atmospheric sky reveals the taste of Venetian painters for the pictorial rendering of light.
The 'capriccio', a somewhat derivation of the 'veduta', i.e. a landscape or town view that is largely topographical in conception, enabled the painter to develop further his imagination as he included in a realistic setting fantastic elements and had therefore to combine them together in an elaborate composition. A characteristic of Guardi's artistic practice was to use again and again identical motifs in different works. The left half of the painting reappears for instance in Capricio with Pyramid, Castello Sforzesco, Milan and in other small paintings in the Alsdorf collection, Winnekta, Illinois as well as, without the satue, in a very small drawing in Count Antoine Seilern's collection (J. Byam Shaw, 1977) while the ruined arch appears as a recurrent motif that Guardi employed in several other versions over the decades (see for instance A Caprice with Ruins on the Seashore, The National Gallery, London and 489-1882).
According to A. Morassi (1973), this work is one of the most elaborated 'capriccio' executed by Francesco Guardi to be dated between the 1760 and 1770 when he developed a much freer brushwork, an essential characteristic of his mature period. This 'capriccio' witnesses Francesco Guardi's personal interpretation of the art of such past great masters as Marco Ricci, whose style particularly influenced Guardi, and to some extent of Canaletto, both exerting a great impact on the development of the 18th-century Venetian art.

A 'capriccio' is a composition that combines imaginary and realistic architectural features in a picturesque setting, often dotted with small figures, and mostly displayed as wall schemes for interior decoration. It emerges as a genre during the early 18th-century Rococo period, and became extremely popular during the era of the Grand Tour of Europe, stimulated by the need of recording topographical settings. The Italian landscape, which abounded with classical ruins, was especially favoured for this new genre painting. It particularly developed in Venice with such artists as Marco Ricci (1676-1730) and his uncle Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734), together with Canaletto (1697-1768), Giambattista Pittoni (1687-1767) and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754), and in Rome where Giovanni Paolo Panini (ca. 1692-1765) was the most representative of the 'capriccio' painters. The genre declined during the early part of the next century, gradually transformed and was eventually absorbed by the Romanticism.

Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) was born in Venice and specialised in little views of the city. He was a collaborator of Canaletto when he was in his 40s and became later very popular running a large studio of his own. He trained both his younger brother Nicolò and his son Giacomo, whose work is well known and who imitated his father's style.

This painting is a characteristic example of Francesco Guardi's 'capriccio' paintings, a genre that was very popular in Venice in the 18th century. It shows an imaginary landscape with arched Roman ruins supported by Corinthian columns, through which is depicted a church with a campanile while small figures are digging around. A pyramid and a Roman statue are at mid distance on the left while behind one can distinguish the seashore. The pictorial rendering of light is particularly elaborate and witnesses the mastery of Venetian painters in that field.

490-1882