?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
ANTONIO DA CANAL, IL CANALETTO Prà della Valle.
Etching, circa 1740. 299x428 mm; 11 3/4x17 inches, wide margins. First state (of 3). Counter mark with the letters AS to a triple crescent watermark (Bromberg 35, which she notes for first state impressions and cites other impressions with the same counter mark and watermark in the British Museum, London). A superb, richly-inked impression with very strong contrasts and crisp, partially inky plate edges, consistent with the earliest impressions of this subject.
Prato della Valle (or Prà della Valle) is a major central square in Padova. It is the biggest piazza in Italy, and one of the largest in Europe. Today, the square is a large space with a green island at the center, l'Isola Memmia, surrounded by a small canal bordered by two rings of statues.
Canaletto's (1697-1768) monumental oil on canvas, The Prà della Valle in Padua, 1741-1746, which relates to the current etching, is now the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan. Bromberg 8.
