Carlo and Ubaldo Resisting the Enchantments of Armida's Nymphs

1750/1755

Gian Antonio Guardi and Francesco Guardi

Associated Names
Gian Antonio Guardi

Artist, Venetian, 1699 - 1761

Francesco Guardi

Artist, Venetian, 1712 - 1793

This painting shows four people on a wide landscape. The leftmost person has light skin and wears a vibrant red cloak, a yellow tunic, and a helmet with a blue plume. They hold a long wooden rod and look towards the people on the right. Next to them is a person with light skin wearing a flowing garment of white and blue with gold details and a blue helmet with a gold rim. They hold a large circular silver shield with gold rim. On the other side of a boulder and two small trees are two mostly nude female figures with light skin and long, braided hair. Next to them, below the trees, is a white bench covered with fruit and an ornate pitcher. One of the women stands, partially covered by white fabric, and holds up a flowing golden cloth. The other woman sits by the edge of a blue pool with blue and gold fabric underneath her, holding an apple and looking towards the two people on the left. A small black dog stands between the two groups. In the background, a wide blue sky stretches in the distance, covered with soft clouds. The landscape is mostly a blue-green color, with some small flowers in white, red, and pink. Small white buildings and columns are visible in the distance on the left, and on the right a white castle with a golden dome sits at the top of a while hill.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, North Stair Landing West

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 250.2 x 459.8 cm (98 1/2 x 181 in.)
    framed: 258.1 x 471.5 cm (101 5/8 x 185 5/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1964.21.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Richard White, 2d earl of Bantry [1800-1868], County Cork, Ireland, who perhaps bought it in Italy c. 1820; by descent to Mrs. Shelswell-White. (Unspecified dealer, Dublin, as by Pellegrini, in 1955); (David Carritt for Geoffrey Merton, London), 1956.[1] (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London); purchased 1964 by NGA.
[1] The discovery of the series of Tasso paintings, of which this and NGA 1964.21.2 are part, is variously recounted in the early literature (see references). Only Antonio Morassi, "Aggiunta al Guardi: le cinque 'Storie' della Gerusalemme liberata", Emporium 131 (1960): 247; Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:232; and a few contemporary news accounts, for example, Giornale del Mattino 30 October 1959, mention the "Dublin dealer." The rest report that Carritt discovered them in "the shed of an old house in Ireland."
There is no evidence which of the Bantry residences originally housed the paintings, or when and where they were acquired. An unsubstantiated, and unlikely, rumor that the paintings were once at Versailles is variously reported in the NGA curatorial files. Francis J.B. Watson, "Guardi and England", in Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965, Venice, 1967: 212, speculated that the earl of Bantry may have acquired the paintings as works by François Boucher (1703-1770).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1960

  • Italian Art and Britain, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1960, no. 457, as by Francesco Guardi.

1969

  • In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1959

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. "Figure di Francesco Guardi." Emporium 130 (1959): 252, n. 14.

  • Jeudwine, W.R. "A Guardi Rediscovery." Apollo 70 (1959): 173-175, repro.

  • Frohlich-Bume, Lili. "Die neuentdeckten Bilder von Francesco Guardi." Weltkunst 29 (1959): 7.

1960

  • Pallucchini 1960, 134, 140, figs. 356-357.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Aggiunta al Guardi: le cinque 'Storie' della Gerusalemme liberata." Emporium 131 (1960): 247-256, figs. 5-6.

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. "Arte Italiana e Inghilterra." Emporium 131 (1960): 168-170.

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. "The Guardi Problem and the Statues of the Venetian Guilds." The Burlington Magazine 102 (1960): 421-428.

1961

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. "La pittura veneta alla mostra Italian Art and Britain: Appunti e proposte." In Festschrift Eberhard Hanfstaengl zum 75. Munich, 1961: 81-83, figs. 5-6.

1964

  • Pignatti, Terisio. "Nuovi disegni di figura dei Guardi." Critica d'Arte n.s. II, nos. 67-68 (1964): 60.

  • Martini, Egidio. La pittura veneziana del settecento. Venice, 1964: 114, 274, n. 259, fig. 262.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 64.

  • Heinemann, Fritz. "Mostra dei Guardi." Kunstchronik 18 (1965): 240.

  • Nicolson, Benedict. "The Guardi Brothers as Figure Painters." The Burlington Magazine 107 (1965): 472.

  • Palluchini, Rodolfo. "Note alla mostra dei Guardi." Arte Veneta 19 (1965): 226.

  • Zampetti, Pietro, ed. Mostra dei Guardi. Exh. cat. Ca'Peasaro, Venice, 1965.

1966

  • Zampetti, Pietro. "A proposito dei Guardi." Colóquio 39 (1966): 44.

  • Watson, Francis J. B. "The Guardi Family of Painters." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 114 (1966): 277-279.

  • Pignatti, Terisio. "The Brothers Guardi." Art News Annual 31 (1966): 45.

  • Levey, Michael. Rococo to Revolution. New York, 1966: 113-114, fig. 69.

  • Hannegan, Barry. "Guardi at Venice." The Art Bulletin 48, no. 2 (June 1966): 251.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Altre novità e precisazioni su Antonio e Francesco Guardi." Atti dell'Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Udine. 7th ser., 8 (1966-1969): 287.

1967

  • Mahon, Denis. "The Brothers at the Mostra dei Guardi: Some Impressions of a Neophyte." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967: 91-99.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Antonio Guardi." In Sensibilità e razionalità del '700. Corso internazionale di alta cultura, 7, Venice 1965. Edited by Vittore Branca. Florence, 1967: 509-510.

  • Watson, Francis J. B. "Guardi and England." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967: 212.

  • Zampetti, Pietro. "Il problema dei Guardi: la ricerca della verita." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 57, repro.

  • Morassi, Antonio. "Antonio Guardi as a Draughtsman." MD 6 (1968): 132.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 98.

1973

  • Morassi, Antonio. Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi. 2 vols. Venice, 1973-1975: 1:88-92, 320-322, nos. 68-69; 2:figs. 78, 80.

1974

  • Rossi Bortolatto, Luigina. L'opera completa di Francesco Guardi. Milan, 1974: 89-90, nos. 17, 21, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 168, repro.

1978

  • Knox, George. "The Tasso Cycles of Giambattista Tiepolo and Gianantonio Guardi." Museum Studies 9 (1978): 89-95, fig. 28-29.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:231-235; 2:pl. 157.

1981

  • Martini, Egidio. La pittura del settecento veneto. Udine, 1981: 547, n. 333.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 348, no. 483, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 194, repro.

1989

  • Pignatti, Terisio. Venezia. Mille anni d'arte. Venice, 1989: 333, color repro.

1992

  • Pedrocco, Filippo, and Federico Montecuccoli degli Erri. Antonio Guardi. Milan, 1992: 141-142, nos. 153-154, figs. 195, 197-201, color pls. 34-35.

1994

  • Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robison, eds. The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, 1994: 452, cat. 191, color pl.

1996

  • De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 147-157, color repro. 150.

Wikidata ID

Q20177997

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