Artista fiammingo attivo a Venezia, fine XVI - inizio XVII secolo

Oil on canvas

102x170 cm. Framed

This complex scene set in the portego of a Venetian aristocratic palace, with the island of San Cristoforo in the background, provides an interesting depiction of a private wedding celebration by isolating some of its salient moments. The Nordic inspiration of the canvas is clear, looking to works of similar theme executed in the second half of the 16th century by artists native to Flanders such as Hieronymus Francken, Paolo Fiammingo, Pozzoserrato and Dirck Barendsz. It is to the latter that the large drawing in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is generally attributed. It was the model for the Venetian Wedding engraved with a burin by Hendrick Goltzius in 1584, from which the painting here in question is evidently derived. Of particular interest, both in the engraving and in our painting, is the insertion of the group of four elderly figures at the far left of the canvas, in two of whom, those most in evidence, one is tempted to recognise the physiognomy of the great Titian Vecellio, Barendsz's master during the years of his stay in Venice.