CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE DIFFICULTIES OF ATTRIBUTION AND DATING OF FRANCESCO GUARDI’S VEDUTE

Abstract: The Venetian veduta or view, became popular in the Settecento when Venice had turned into a regular stop on the Grand Tour. The foreign market’s interest in vedute, prompted Venetian artists to follow in Canaletto’s path. Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) is today famous for such views, and his paintings hang in museums around the world. One of his vedute, Piazza San Marco, Venice, was bought by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm in 1964. In 1990, however, the Nationalmuseum changed the attribution of the painting. What prompted such a change? This thesis critically discusses the difficulty of attribution and dating of vedute in the Eighteenth century, specifically of paintings by the artist Francesco Guardi. Moreover, it presents and examines the strengths and weaknesses of the different attributional methods based on documentary, stylistic, topographic and technical approach, and with what success scholars have used them to establish a chronology of Francesco Guardi's oeuvre. Due to its well documented history, the painting, Piazza San Marco, Venice, will serve as a case study for the difficulties of attributing and dating Francesco Guard’s vedute, and the thesis will present evidence to Piazza San Marco, Venice,’s authenticity as a Francesco Guardi autograph.