Description
Giovanni Riva (Turin 1890 – Turin 1973) – Venice, view of the Basin of San Marco with the Doge’s Palace.
Oil on cardboard, in a period carved wood frame.
Signed lower right: «RIVA».
The Turinese painter Giovanni Riva returned frequently to Venetian views, rendering them with a free and textured brushwork that draws on the European Impressionist tradition as reinterpreted through early twentieth-century Italian sensibility. The painting depicts the Basin of San Marco with the Doge’s Palace seen from the water: the Gothic façade of the building occupies the middle ground of the composition, flanked on the left by a bell tower, while in the foreground gondolas animate the lagoon with rapid, luminous strokes reminiscent of the typical repertoire of Canaletto’s figures. The brushwork is loose and synthetic, favouring atmospheric effect over the precise rendering of architectural detail.
Condition report: Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface.
