Venice, Nocturnal Festivities on the Via Eugenia (today Via Garibaldi)
Date: 1840 ; Venice in terms of modern geography
Art form: Painting
Dimensions: 52 X 66 cm (20.47 X 25.98 in)
Considering the popular nature of this painting’s subject matter, it is not surprising that Ippolito Caffi reworked this composition on several occasions: three other versions are held in public collections including the Ca’Pesaro Museum of Modern Art, the Civic Museum of Belluno and the Revoltella Museum in Trieste. Caffi was admitted to the Venice Academy in 1827 where he stood out as a very talented landscape painter. He lived in Rome from 1832 to 1848, but often returned to Venice, depicting both cities in vivid colors and shifting light. The present work can be dated to around 1839-1840. Caffi depicts the colourful celebrations underway in the street, with banners, natural and artificial lights, and nocturnal darkness.
The light sources are varied: illuminated by the moonlight, the lagoon itself lights up the boats and the buildings, and is the dominant source of light. People gather around a fire which itself provides further illumination. Another is visible on the right-hand side of the composition. It is the poetic and mysterious quality that makes Via Eugenia one of Caffi’s most popular and celebrated works.In 1866 the street was renamed Via Garibaldi.
(Description taken from dorotheum)
