CAFFI, Ippolito
(b. 1809, Belluno, d. 1866, at sea)

Bombardment of Marghera on the Night of May 24, 1849

1849
Oil on canvas
Museo d'Arte Moderna, Ca' Pesaro, Venice

The Neo-classical movement in Venice included a number of artists of note, who often painted the cultivated and refined decorations for buildings erected or renovated in the period. Among the artists who continued to draw inspiration from the great Venetian Vedutisti were Vincenzo Chilone and Ippolito Caffi. Caffi was the most original of Venetian Vedutisti and the true successor to Canaletto. He achieved a style of his own by combining the eighteenth-century tradition with romantic effects of mist and nocturnal light. He painted seascapes and naval battles that contrast with the idyllic scenes of his contemporaries.