SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
Titled Der erste Luftballon über Venedig, this oil on relined canvas measures 134 × 75.5 cm at the top and 55 cm at the bottom; it is signed and bears, on a cartouche, an inscription mentioning the launch of the balloon in Venice on 15 April 1784. The sale catalogue compares the composition with an earlier depiction by Francesco Guardi, held at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin and presented as its direct model. Zanin reworks the motif by setting it in a different architectural projection and adding figures of spectators, according to the same catalogue.
The catalogue places this approach within an interest shared by several nineteenth-century Venetian painters in the final decades of the eighteenth century, an interest it links to market demand. This example thus bears witness to a historical motif being taken up and reworked rather than simply reproduced.
This profile brings together identity references for Francesco Zanin and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Lempertz
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Oil on canvas
Der erste Luftballon über Venedig
Öl auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2022-05-21
Published result : 47500 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 40000
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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