Oil Painting, 'A Lady Seen in Full Face', Luca Carlevarijs, late 17th-early 18th century

A lady, wearing a full black skirt, white bodice with pink detailing and a black hooded mantle over her head, holds a fan in front of her face and a mask in her other hand. This work is part of an album of fifty-three sketches by Carlevarijs which includes figures and objects he appears to have painted in the open air in preparation for insertion into formal compositions.

Purchased from the funds of Captain H. B. Murray's bequest.

Purchased, 1938

This is one of Carlevarijs' studies known as ‘macchiette’, originally part of an album of fifty-three sketches which includes figures Carlevarijs appears to have painted in open air. Carlevarijs first drew the figures on paper, copying them from people he saw in the streets and then transformed them into lively oil sketches, such as this one, which represent a crucial part of his artistic process.

Here a lady faces out, holding a closed fan up to her right cheek and a mask in her left hand. Fans and masks were usually as a form of secret language which was of great help in carrying out love affairs without knowledge of the lady's chaperone.

The figure wears a full black skirt, white bodice with pink detailing and a black hooded mantle over her head, holds a fan in front of her face and a mask in her other hand.

Studies such as these would ultimately form part of a Venetian veduta or prospect painting, which is a genre Carlevarijs is generally credited with establishing in the 18th century. This figure reappears for example in the centre foreground of The Piazza San Marco (Private Collection, repr. Beddington, pl.8).

Carlevarijs' sketches reveal a particular attention to costume, highlighting Venetian style of dress which was highly regarded in fashionable circles throughout Europe from the 16th through the 18th centuries. During the 18th century Venice became renowned for its carnival season and many figures in the view paintings by Carlevarijs can be seen in with accessories or costume, such as the men's domino, which was worn during these festivities.

The figures and objects appear frequently and virtually without variations in his paintings between 1707 and 1726 and are closely related to his etchings of 1703 in Le fabriche e vedute di Venetia. Composed of 104 views of Venice, the etchings formed 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.

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).

This drawing is a sketch study showing a Venetian lady wearing a full black skirt, white bodice with pink detailing and a black hooded mantle over her head, holds a fan in front of her face and a mask in her other hand. This work was originally part of a dismembered album of fifty-three sketches that would ultimately form part of a Venetian veduta or prospect painting, a genre Carlevarijs is generally credited with establishing in the 18th century. His oeuvre probably influenced view paintings later made popular by Canaletto (1697-1768) and Francesco Guardi (1712-1793).

P.78-1938