|
A calm sea stretches the full width of the painting. The beach in the foreground is populated with numerous small figures: two horsemen, a merchant with his servants and assistants, a small group of swimmers. A high, straight embankment, at a right angle to the beach, runs from the left side of the scene well past the middle. Above the wall the profile of a city can be distinguished. A ruined tower dominates the left side of the composition. Standing on an embankment parallel to the spit of land, the tower is evidently inhabited by the woman hanging her laundry out of the large upper window. Ships lie at anchor on the right.
The nearly horizontal bands of the beach, the spit of land, the enbankment and the horizon predominate. The tower functions as a vertical accent and the ships on the right as its counterweight. The scene is bathed in a delicate, clear light, under a pale blue sky with lightly accented pink clouds. The city emerges through a warm, light haze. The greyish-green water reflects the white sails of the ships. The deeper browns, reds and blues in the foreground contrast with these delicate pastel hues.
The handling of light in particular foreshadows the art of Canaletto. But the vedutisti also further developed the broad horizontality of the composition in their paintings. Canaletto almost never painted horizons that were as open as the one in this work, but Francesco Guardi did, especially in his late views of the Lagoon.
The light and the individual motifs in this canvas evince the inspiration Ricci drew from seventeenth-century Dutch art. The work of Italianate painters such as Jan Both or Jan Asselijn comes to mind, but also of specialists in northern coastal views such as Ludolf Bakhuyzen and Jan van de Cappelle. Ricci may have become acquainted with their work in England, where he twice stayed: once between 1708 and 1710, and again from 1712 till 1716.
Marco Ricci most often painted Arcadian landscapes, whether or not with classical ruins. For Canaletto, Ricci's paintings of ruins in particular were an important model. Though views such as this one are exceptional for him, the Coastal View with Tower is one of Riccfs finest accomplishments.
| 
