LOVISA, Domenico
(b. ca. 1690, Venezia, d. ca. 1750, Venezia)

Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo

1720
Woodcut
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice

A painting of this subject with the same lighting by Canaletto was derived from this print. The lighting is illogical for two reasons: the sun cannot have cast shadows on the south side of the church any more than it could have shone simultaneously on the façade of the Scuola di San Marco, barely visible on the far left. The print Lovisa published is modelled on a print by Silvestre. Canaletto was not the first painter to avail himself of this composition; at least a half century earlier the Netherlander Abraham Storck — who is not known to have ever visited Venice — based a painting on Silvestre's print; here, however, Santi Giovanni e Paolo has been miraculously transported to the shores of the Mediterranean.




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