From the series of prints ‘Prospectum Ædium Viarumque Insigniorum Urbis Venetiarum’. Inscribed below image left: “Jo. Bap. Moretti et Filii del. e Pinx.”; right: “Jo. Baptista Brustoloni sculp.”; in lower margin centre: “Nocturna populi exultatio in pervigilio Sancti Petri Apostoli prope limina Patriarchalis Ecclesiæ, vulgò Sancti Petri de Castello. / Apud Ludovicum Furlanetto supra Pontem vulgo dictum dei Baretteri C.P.E.S.”. The third state, published by Teodoro Viero; the numbering on plate lower right, next to the inscription in Latin is cancelled as indicated by bibliography.
The subject is taken from a drawing by Giovanni Battista Moretti (Italian, active Venice, 1748-75) which in turn derives from a Canaletto painting. The print comes from the most important of Brustolon’s series, Prospectuum Aedium Viarumque Insignorum Urbis Venetiarum, dedicated to the Doge Marco Foscarini, from drawings by Canaletto, Moretti and sons and others, published for the first time by Ludovico Furlanetto in 1763 and later by Teodoro Viero. Giambattista Brustolon (1712–1796) was a famous Venetian engraver, a pupil of Joseph Wagner; whose talent is best displayed in his famous nocturnals: ‘riesce a dare il meglio di sé … nei famosi notturni’ (Succi).
Plate: 324 × 458 mm
Sheet: 350 × 471 cm
References: The British Museum 1944,1014.209.48; The Metropolitan Museum of Art 60.611.29(4) (first state); Dario Succi, Da Carlevaris ai Tiepolo, 1983, pp.81-93, n. 55; William George Constable, J. G. Links, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal. 1697–1768. Oxford, 1989, vol. II, cat. no. 10, p. 674.
Condition: a very slight central fold, slight foxing and a very slight stain to the top, four small pinholes in corners, not affecting the engraving; else a well-margined copy in good condition.
