Carlo and Ubaldo Resisting the Enchantments of Armida's Nymphs

1750/1755

Gian Antonio Guardi

Artist, Venetian, 1699 - 1761

Francesco Guardi

Artist, Venetian, 1712 - 1793

Media Options

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On View

NGA, West Building, M-121, E


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 250.2 x 459.8 cm (98 1/2 x 181 in.)
    framed: 258.1 x 471.5 cm (101 5/8 x 185 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1964.21.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Richard White, 2d earl of Bantry [1800-1868], County Cork, Ireland, who perhaps bought it in Italy c. 1820; by descent to Mrs. Shelswell-White. (Unspecified dealer, Dublin, as by Pellegrini, in 1955); (David Carritt for Geoffrey Merton, London), 1956.[1] (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London); purchased 1964 by NGA.
[1] The discovery of the series of Tasso paintings, of which this and NGA 1964.21.2 are part, is variously recounted in the early literature (see references). Only Antonio Morassi, "Aggiunta al Guardi: le cinque 'Storie' della Gerusalemme liberata", Emporium 131 (1960): 247; Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:232; and a few contemporary news accounts, for example, Giornale del Mattino 30 October 1959, mention the "Dublin dealer." The rest report that Carritt discovered them in "the shed of an old house in Ireland."
There is no evidence which of the Bantry residences originally housed the paintings, or when and where they were acquired. An unsubstantiated, and unlikely, rumor that the paintings were once at Versailles is variously reported in the NGA curatorial files. Francis J.B. Watson, "Guardi and England", in Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965, Venice, 1967: 212, speculated that the earl of Bantry may have acquired the paintings as works by François Boucher (1703-1770).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1960

  • Italian Art and Britain, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1960, no. 457, as by Francesco Guardi.

1969

  • In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1959

  • Frohlich-Bume, Lili. "Die neuentdeckten Bilder von Francesco Guardi." Weltkunst 29 (1959): 7.

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. "Figure di Francesco Guardi." Emporium 130 (1959): 252, n. 14.

  • Jeudwine, W.R. "A Guardi Rediscovery." Apollo 70 (1959): 173-175, repro.

1960

  • Pallucchini 1960, 134, 140, figs. 356-357.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Aggiunta al Guardi: le cinque 'Storie' della Gerusalemme liberata." Emporium 131 (1960): 247-256, figs. 5-6.

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. "Arte Italiana e Inghilterra." Emporium 131 (1960): 168-170.

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. "The Guardi Problem and the Statues of the Venetian Guilds." The Burlington Magazine 102 (1960): 421-428.

1961

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. "La pittura veneta alla mostra Italian Art and Britain: Appunti e proposte." In Festschrift Eberhard Hanfstaengl zum 75. Munich, 1961: 81-83, figs. 5-6.

1964

  • Martini, Egidio. La pittura veneziana del settecento. Venice, 1964: 114, 274, n. 259, fig. 262.

  • Pignatti, Terisio. "Nuovi disegni di figura dei Guardi." Critica d'Arte n.s. II, nos. 67-68 (1964): 60.

1965

  • Nicolson, Benedict. "The Guardi Brothers as Figure Painters." The Burlington Magazine 107 (1965): 472.

  • Palluchini, Rodolfo. "Note alla mostra dei Guardi." Arte Veneta 19 (1965): 226.

  • Zampetti, Pietro, ed. Mostra dei Guardi. Exh. cat. Ca'Peasaro, Venice, 1965.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 64.

  • Heinemann, Fritz. "Mostra dei Guardi." Kunstchronik 18 (1965): 240.

1966

  • Hannegan, Barry. "Guardi at Venice." The Art Bulletin 48, no. 2 (June 1966): 251.

  • Levey, Michael. Rococo to Revolution. New York, 1966: 113-114, fig. 69.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Altre novità e precisazioni su Antonio e Francesco Guardi." Atti dell'Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Udine. 7th ser., 8 (1966-1969): 287.

  • Pignatti, Terisio. "The Brothers Guardi." Art News Annual 31 (1966): 45.

  • Watson, Francis J. B. "The Guardi Family of Painters." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 114 (1966): 277-279.

  • Zampetti, Pietro. "A proposito dei Guardi." Colóquio 39 (1966): 44.

1967

  • Mahon, Denis. "The Brothers at the Mostra dei Guardi: Some Impressions of a Neophyte." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967: 91-99.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Antonio Guardi." In Sensibilità e razionalità del '700. Corso internazionale di alta cultura, 7, Venice 1965. Edited by Vittore Branca. Florence, 1967: 509-510.

  • Watson, Francis J. B. "Guardi and England." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967: 212.

  • Zampetti, Pietro. "Il problema dei Guardi: la ricerca della verita." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 57, repro.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Antonio Guardi as a Draughtsman." MD 6 (1968): 132.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 98.

1973

  • Morassi, Antonio. Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi. 2 vols. Venice, 1973-1975: 1:88-92, 320-322, nos. 68-69; 2:figs. 78, 80.

1974

  • Rossi Bortolatto, Luigina. L'opera completa di Francesco Guardi. Milan, 1974: 89-90, nos. 17, 21, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 168, repro.

1978

  • Knox, George. "The Tasso Cycles of Giambattista Tiepolo and Gianantonio Guardi." Museum Studies 9 (1978): 89-95, fig. 28-29.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:231-235; 2:pl. 157.

1981

  • Martini, Egidio. La pittura del settecento veneto. Udine, 1981: 547, n. 333.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 348, no. 483, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 194, repro.

1989

  • Pignatti, Terisio. Venezia. Mille anni d'arte. Venice, 1989: 333, color repro.

1992

  • Pedrocco, Filippo, and Federico Montecuccoli degli Erri. Antonio Guardi. Milan, 1992: 141-142, nos. 153-154, figs. 195, 197-201, color pls. 34-35.

1994

  • Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robison, eds. The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, 1994: 452, cat. 191, color pl.

1996

  • De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 147-157, color repro. 150.

Wikidata ID

Q20177997


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