{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1093407"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1093407/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL2962/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL2962/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AL2962","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JW2908","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JR6310","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1093407/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1093407","accessionNumber":"143","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"Design for a bissona, or a ceremonial gondola","type":"published title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"drawing pen and ink and watercolour of a Bissona with an allegorical figure of Fame.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Guardi, Francesco","id":"A18909"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pen and ink and watercolour","id":"x32505"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"","id":""}],"techniques":[{"text":"Drawing","id":"x32498"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen, ink and water-colour over traces of pencil.\r\nFrame: Carved and gilded","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"}],"styles":[{"text":"Venetian School","id":"x36536"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AL2962","2017JW2908","2017JR6310"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"WS","id":"THES49603"},"free":"","case":"R","shelf":"25","box":"R"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawings","id":"AAT33973"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Venice","id":"x29237"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1735-1793","earliest":"1735-01-01","latest":"1793-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"620","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2016","earliest":"2016-01-01","latest":"2016-12-31"},"part":"Frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"747","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2016","earliest":"2016-01-01","latest":"2016-12-31"},"part":"Frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"38","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2016","earliest":"2016-01-01","latest":"2016-12-31"},"part":"Frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"403","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"547","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"PROVENANCE: Bought 1857\r\n\r\nHistorical significance: Francesco Guardi was the most celebrated member of a family of eighteenth-century Venetian artists. After the death of his brother Giovanni in the middle of the century, Francesco established himself as a <i>Veduta</i> painter. Although he borrowed from many artists, the most important source of inspiration in his early period was certainly Canaletto. However, the painters probably had never worked together. Guardi followed closely Canaletto’s drawings and engravings in his topographically accurate views of Venice, which were in demand among foreign collectors.\r\n\r\nLater in the 1770s and 1780s, Guardi’s style becomes looser and freer. He also painted the figures according to contemporary fashion, which makes his paintings a valuable indication of the current trends in hairstyle and dress. The ladies in his works from that period wear high coiffures decorated with feathers and flowers inspired by French and English fashions. Guardi was more comfortable with small figures in architectural setting than with large-scale religious scenes in altarpieces.\r\n\r\nVenetian patrons preferred Guardi’s imaginary views, called <i>capricci</i>, to the straightforward recreations of the architecture of the city. The motifs include creative ensembles of classical architecture, picturesque ruins, Gothic arches, harbours and obelisks. Guardi often repeated these details introducing slight variations. Identifiable architectural details from Venice, such as the Doge’s Palace, conflate in the <i>capricci</i> with fruits of Guardi’s imagination. \r\n\r\nFrancesco Guardi died in 1793. As a major figure on the artistic scene, his characteristic style and considerable output encouraged many forgeries, especially in the medium of drawing.\r\n\r\nThis drawing depicts a <i>bissona</i>, or a ceremonial, richly decorated gondola used by Venetian families in regattas. There is a winged allegorical figure of fame on the left edge of the <i>bissona</i>.The scale of the drawing and the fact that the <i>bissona</i> occupies the entire sheet suggests that it might have been a working design serving as basis for construction. However, it lacks measurements and technical discipline. The design seems to have been used in Guardi’s painting practice. A similar <i>bissona</i>, although reduced in scale and shown from different angles, occurs in Guardi’s paintings depicting the lavish regatta on the Venetian canals (Morassi, 1973, II, no. 298, 306, 334, 335). Guardi might have used the splendour of Venetian regattas as a source of inspiration to transform the architectural construction into a decorative fantasy. \r\n\r\nThe colours are rich and carefully worked out, convincingly evoking the splendid decoration of the <i>bissona</i>. The sheet has trace of vertical folding in the middle. A design for another <i>bissona</i>, similar in scale and style, is catalogued under 144. Similar depictions of decorative <i>bissone</i> are in the Ashmolean Museum and the Museo Correr (inv. 7314, 61).\r\n\r\nReferenes:\r\n\r\nMorassi, Antonio; <u>Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi</u>, (Alfieri, Venice 1973)","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Drawing, Design for a bissona, or ceremonial gondola, by Francesco Guardi, Venetian school, pen and ink and water-colour, 18th Century","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ward-Jackson, Peter. <u>Italian Drawings: volume Two 17th-18th century</u>,  London, 1980, cat. 1032, p.150, illus.\n\nThe following is the full text of the entry: \n\r\nGUARDI, FRANCESCO\r\n(1712-93)\n\r\n1032 \r\nDesign for a bissona, or ceremonial gondola\r\nPen and ink and water-colour over black chalk\r\n15 7/8 x 21 ½ (403 x 547) 143\n\r\nPROVENANCE Bought 1857\n\r\nLITERATURE J.Byam Shaw, ‘Four drawings by Francesco Guardi’ in <i>OMD</i> 12, 1937, pp. 18-21, and pl. 19; Byam Shaw, p. 73, no. 54 and pl. 54; Exhibition Catalogue <i>Drawings by Old Masters</i>, at the Diploma Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1953, no. 189; Parker and Byam Shaw, no. 86; Exhibition Catalogue, <i>Life in 18th century Venice</i>, Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, 1966, no. 22; Morassi, <i>Tutti I disegni</i>, no. 303, pl. 304\r\n\r\nThe bissona was a richly decorated craft used by the great Venetian families at regattas etc. Other designs by Guardi and others are illustrated in G. Lorenzetti, <i>Le Feste e le maschere veneziane</i>, Venice, 1937, together with contemporary paintings showing the craft in use. There is no proof that our two drawings of a <i>bissona</i> are working designs rather than studies for pictures, but the large scale and the fact that the drawings exactly fill the sheets suggest this conclusion. A similar drawing of about the same size in the Correr Museum at Venice has a scale of measurement below, which supports the supposition. But Morassi lists and illustrates several paintings in which Guardi seems to have used our two studies or designs. \r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Morassi, Antonio. <u>Guardi, tutti is disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi</u>, (Venice: Alfieri, 1975), p.131, cat. 303, plate.304."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Byam Shaw, J.J. 'Four drawings by Francesco Guardi in English Public Collections', in <u>Old Master Drawings</u>, XII, 1937, pp.18-21, fig.19."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Byam Shaw, J.J. <u>The Drawings of Francesco Guardi</u>, London, 1951, p.73, n.54."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Drawings by the Old Masters</u>, exhibition catalogue, (London: Royal Academy, 1953), p.49, n.189."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Byam Shaw, J.J. 'A sketch for a ceiling by Francesco Guardi', in <u>The Burlington Magazine</u>, February 1962, CIV, p. 64, mp. 86."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"Cat. 88, p.224","free":"Alberto Craievich, Filippo Pedrocco, <i>Francesco Guardi 1712-1793</i> Venice, 2012. ISBN: 978-88-572-1481-8"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"p. 457, cat. 207","free":"Merling, <u>The Brothers Guardi</u>, in <u>The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century</u>, exhibition catalogue (London, The Royal Academy of Arts; Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art), New Haven, 1994."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"cat. 16","free":"Bettagno, <u>Vedute</u>, in<u> Francesco Guardi: vedute, capricci, feste</u>, exhibition catalogue (Venici, Fondazione Cini), Milan, 1993."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Design","id":"THES48872"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["143"],"accessionNumberNum":"143","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2009-07-01","availableToBook":false}}