Figure study by Luca Carlevarijs from a sketchbook of 32 sheets entitled 'Studio Figuratti Diversi di Luca Carlevarijs'. Italy, ca. 1715-25.

Pen and ink drawing over black chalk depicting a beggar on crutches.

Historical significance: Painter, engraver and architect, Luca Carlevarijs (1633-1730) has long been acknowledged as the first Italian painter of Venetian views. Although he worked in other genres, it is for his views of Venice that Carlevarijs is possibly best known. Following the death of his father, also an artist, Carlevarijs left his native Udine to live in Venice with his sister. He was soon discovered by the powerful Venetian Zenobio family who lived in the same quartiere or district as the young artist. It is believed that the artist travelled to Rome when he was young. In Rome he would have been exposed to the view paintings of one of the first masters of this genre Gaspare van Wittel. On his return to Venice Carlevarijs began to produce views of his adopted city. One of the seminal works was the artist's volume of printed views titled: Le fabriche e vedute di Venezia disegnate poste in prospettiva et intagliate da Luca Carlevaris. Published in 1703, this book consists of 104 views of Venice. It was the most complete survey of the fabric of the city ever produced and served as a model for Venetian view painters throughout the 18th century. The work was highly influential with many later view painters, including Canaletto, borrowing from it for their own paintings. Perhaps due to his friendship with the Zenobio family, Carlevarijs enjoyed the patronage of many Venetian families. Other contemporary Venetian view painters such as Guardi and Canaletto painted mainly for the export market, making Carlevarijs' role in Venetian society unusual. Following his Arrival of the 4th Earl of Manchester in Venice in 1707 (1707; Birmingham, Mus. & A.G.), many of Carlevarijs' paintings combine grouping of figures against the backdrop of Venice in rich, colourful and dramatic compositions. In 1712 he was working in Conegliano and in 1714 he returned to Udine to work as architectural supervisor for the Cathedral. A portrait of the artist shows him with pair of dividers, suggesting that he had some form of mathematical training. His name appears on a list of confraternity of Venetian Painters in the years 1708-13, 1712, and 1726.

This page is from an album of 32 sheets of figure studies by Carlevarijs. The binding, in printed paper, dates from the eighteenth century. It is titled Studio Figurati Diversi di Luca Carlevaris. These sketches form part of the working process of the artist's paintings. He first drew the figures on paper, copying them from people he saw in the streets and then transformed them into lively oil sketches, known as macchiette, quick sketches he made with daubs of colour to indicate animated Venetian figures. These oil sketches would ultimately form part of a Venetian veduta or prospect painting, which is a genre Carlevarijs is generally credited with establishing in the eighteenth century.

Carlevarijs populated his vedute with elegantly posed and well-dressed figures from all walks of life, concealing the decline of the Republic under the splendour of the pageants, festivals and regattas he often represented. This page shows sketches of six women see from different viewpoints. Sparing lines of pen and ink are used to give the form of each figure and their dress. These sketches demonstrate a keen observation of gesture and posture as well as contemporary dress. This can be seen in by comparing the slightly different angles at which the two figures at the top left of the sheet hold their heads. Carlevarijs' sketches also demonstrate his great influence on Canaletto, whose figures and their arrangement often show a marked debt to the older Master such as in Venice: The Feast Day of Saint Roch ca. 1735 (National Gallery, London, NG937).

D.1352A/5-1887