Sebastiano Ricci

Rizzi, Sebastiano

Venetian, 1659 - 1734

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Italian painter (1659–1734)

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Sebastiano Ricci, A Miracle of Saint Francis of Paola, 1733, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.71

A Miracle of Saint Francis of Paola

Sebastiano Ricci · 1733 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.71

Sebastiano Ricci, The Exaltation of the True Cross, 1733, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.72

The Exaltation of the True Cross

Sebastiano Ricci · 1733 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.72

Sebastiano Ricci, Lodovico Ughi, Giovanni Antonio Faldoni, Francesco Zucchi, Giuseppe Baroni, Iconografica Rappresentatione della Inclita Città di Venezia (Iconongraphic Representation of the Illustrious City of Venice), 1729, etching and engraving on twenty joined sheets of laid paper, The Ahmanson Foundation, 2010.66.1

Iconografica Rappresentatione della Inclita Città di Venezia (Iconongraphic Representation of the Illustrious City of Venice)

Sebastiano Ricci, Lodovico Ughi, Giovanni Antonio Faldoni, Francesco Zucchi, Giuseppe Baroni · 1729 · etching and engraving on twenty joined sheets of laid paper ·  Accession ID  2010.66.1

Sebastiano Ricci, The Angel Appearing to Hagar and Ishmael, 1726/1727, pen and brown ink and brown wash over black and red chalk on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1987.8.1

The Angel Appearing to Hagar and Ishmael

Sebastiano Ricci · 1726/1727 · pen and brown ink and brown wash over black and red chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1987.8.1

We look slightly down at an ornate fountain in a dirt and stone courtyard surrounded by about two dozen people, many of whom look at or gesture toward the fountain in this vertical painting. Most of the people have pale, peachy skin but one man, near the lower center, has dark brown skin and short black hair. The fountain has a broad, shell-shaped base filled with glimmering, aquamarine-blue water. In the basin, and as if carved from gray stone, two muscular, nude men blow horns as they ride stylized dolphins, which spout water into the pool. Two more people wearing robes sit atop a tall, pedestal-shaped form that rises from the back of the shell base. The person to our left holds aloft a bowl and the other holds a vessel on her lap as she turns to look up and behind her at the pinnacle of the fountain. There, a person, also carved from stone, sits on a throne and points down with one hand while the other, closer to us, rests on a short column with three flame-like protrusions up each side. He leans back against a short, curving ship with an oar coming through a porthole to our right. A nude, chubby, baby-like cherub straddles the rudder like a horse to our right. The sun falls down the front of the fountain, especially highlighting the middle tier and bottom shell-shaped basin, and it illuminates the people gathered around and near its base. One man to our left kneels on the edge of the basin and dips one hand in, as several others stand around it and look up at or point toward it. Most of the people wear robes, cloaks, and tunics in mustard yellow, tomato red, peach, white, and royal or light blue. A few vignettes draw the eye, including two men wearing chains on their ankles, are sprawled in shadow in the lower left corner of the composition. In that same cluster, two men stand and gesture toward the fountain while another sits at their feet. Nearby, the man with brown skin sits in front of a light-skinned man wearing a turban, a striped tunic, and a short sword hanging from his belt. The turbaned man stands with his back to us and rests his right hand on the handle of a pointed axe, using it like a cane. To our right, a person wearing an armor breastplate under a ruby-red cloak stands next to a balding man who also points up at the fountain. A young man wearing a lemon-yellow suit sits on a fallen block in the lower right corner of the composition, holding a board on his lap and presumably sketching the fountain, as a man wearing sapphire blue looks on. More people walk toward the fountain down in front of a gate to our right of the fountain. Beyond, plants and vegetation grow among ruins with columns, a stone obelisk, and a tall narrow pyramid. Pale pink clouds float in the pastel blue sky above. The artists signed their names as if written on the face of a stone block near the lower left: “B.” and “M.” next to “RICCI Faciebant.”
Sebastiano Ricci, Marco Ricci, Memorial to Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell, 1725, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.58

Memorial to Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell

Sebastiano Ricci, Marco Ricci · 1725 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.58

Sebastiano Ricci, Biblical Scene [verso], 1720/1730, graphite on laid paper, Gift of Mrs. Rudolf J. Heinemann, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.172.1.b

Biblical Scene [verso]

Sebastiano Ricci · 1720/1730 · graphite on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1991.172.1.b

Sebastiano Ricci, The Ecstasy of Saint Francis [recto], 1706/1720, pen and brown ink and brown wash on laid paper, Gift of Mrs. Rudolf J. Heinemann, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.172.1.a

The Ecstasy of Saint Francis [recto]

Sebastiano Ricci · 1706/1720 · pen and brown ink and brown wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1991.172.1.a

Sebastiano Ricci, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, 1718, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper, The Edith Tanenbaum Rudolf Collection, 2018.26.23

Christ and the Samaritan Woman

Sebastiano Ricci · 1718 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2018.26.23

Seen through a wide, shallow, ornamental, stone arch, seventeen light-skinned people and a dog gather around or near a long banquet table set with plates of food in this horizontal painting. The table angles away from us so the short, right side is closest to us in the darkened room, which is lined along the far wall with shallow columns and capitals. To our left, an arched doorway in the room opens to a view of a stone structure and a sliver of blue sky. A gleaming, gold candelabra with curving arms hangs over the table from a coffered, possibly wooden ceiling. The table is covered with a white cloth. Men crowd around the short ends and the long side of the table opposite us. In pairs and trios, the men converse or look toward a man with light radiating from the top and sides of his head, at the center of the far side of the table. That bearded man, Jesus, has long brown hair and points his index finger upward with his right hand, on our left. The other men at the table wear robes and tunics in sage green, tan, brown, or slate blue. A portly man behind Jesus stands with a cloth draped over one forearm and his other hand on his hip, looking down at the table. Another cleanshaven man stands holding a large platter at the far corner of the table, and two people, perhaps a man and woman, appear to be walking away from the table but look back over their shoulders to our left. On the long side of the table, closer to us, a man to our left, balding with a long gray beard, sits on a narrow, bench-like seat and twists to pick up a jug from a large basin on the floor. The final man stands near an overturned seat as he turns his back on the table. He gestures forward, to our left, with one hand as he looks back over his other shoulder. A white dog with brown spots chews on a bone near the overturned seat. The highly decorated wide archway through which we see the scene seems to be carved from pale, fog-gray stone with scrolling moldings and capitals. The arch has a shield-like decoration at the top center, and is flanked by sculpted people in the upper corners. Two larger golden statues of robed women stand on floating plinths to either side of the arch. The woman to our left holds flaming orbs and the other holds a yoke across her shoulders. Though the painting seems rather illusionistic from afar, closer examination shows that it is sketchily painted throughout.
Sebastiano Ricci, The Last Supper, 1713/1714, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.32

The Last Supper

Sebastiano Ricci · 1713/1714 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.4.32

A woman kneeling on the ground and leaning toward a wafer held out by a man in a brown robe is surrounded by three winged angels in this vertical painting. The scene is dramatically lit from the upper left, and the people all have light skin. The woman, Saint Mary of Egypt, takes up most of the lower right quadrant of the painting, and she faces our left in profile. Her skin is tinged with gray, and a tear rolls down her gaunt cheek. Her lips are parted as she leans toward the quarter-sized wafer. Her wavy, chestnut-brown hair cascades down her back. She is naked from the waist up except for a white cloth she loosely holds to her chest with her left hand, closer to us. Her other hand is lifted, palm up, and her lower body is wrapped in voluminous, cobalt-blue fabric. The man stands opposite her, to our left, and he leans toward her to offer the wafer with his right hand. He holds a gold plate with his other hand. He is balding with a thick beard and deeply creased face. He wears a patched brown robe and a string of thick beads around his neck. Below him, in the lower left, an angel kneels facing away from us, looking toward Saint Mary. Light shines on the angel’s blond ringlets and along the edges of long, white and dove-gray wings. The angel wears a saffron-yellow tunic. An orange sash flutters at the waist, and a white cloth wraps around the lower body but reveals bare shins and feet. A burning torch is held in one hand, to our right. Another angel with widespread wings hovers in mid-air behind Saint Mary and looks down at her. This second angel’s glowing white wings nearly span the width of the painting. One arm reaches for or braces Saint Mary and the other holds the other end of the cloth Saint Mary clutches to her chest. Dark blond ringlets lift away from the angel’s shadowed face, and folds of the coral-orange garment flutter around the body. A third angel looks on from under one lifted wing, along the right edge of the painting. That angel is seen from the shoulders up with fingertips touching, and has tousled copper-red hair. Two winged baby heads float above the scene and are set against the cream-white and ginger-brown clouds that billow in from the upper right and fill much of the sky. A sliver of royal-blue sky is visible in the upper left.
Sebastiano Ricci, The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt, c. 1695, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2003.85.1

The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt

Sebastiano Ricci · c. 1695 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2003.85.1

Bibliography

1771

  • Zanetti, Anton Maria. Della pittura veneziana e delle oper pubbliche de' veneziani maestri. 1771. Reprint. Venice, 1972: 437-442.

1922

  • von Derschau, Joachim. Sebastiano Ricci. Ein Beitrag zu den Anfängen der venezianischen Rokokomalerei. Heidelberg, 1922.

1976

  • Daniels, Jeffery. Sebastiano Ricci. Hove, 1976.

  • Pilo, Giuseppe Maria. Sebastiano Ricci e la pittura veneziana del Settecento. Pordenone, 1976.

1978

  • Moretti, Lino. "Documenti e appunti su Sebastiano Ricci." Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Arte 11 (1978): 96-125.

1989

  • Rizzi, Aldo. Sebastiano Ricci. Exh. cat. Villa Manin di Passariano, Udine. Milan, 1989.

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: 223-224.