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Unknown Maker

View of the Canal and Church of St. Barnabas with Battle of the Fists, from the series

Description

Maker

Unknown Maker, artist
Domenico Lovisa (Italian, ca. 1690-ca. 1750), publisher

Title

View of the Canal and Church of St. Barnabas with Battle of the Fists, from the series
Il Gran Teatro di Venezia (The Great Theater of Venice)

Year

ca. 1720

Medium

  • Etching on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Etching on paper

Materials

etching, engraving

Supports

  • Medium weight cream laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 36.7 x 48.3 cm (14 7/16 x 19 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Membership Fund

Object Number

66.307

Type

  • Prints

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

Venice in the Eighteenth Century: Prints and Drawings

  • Journal

The Festive City

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Festive City
Dec 21, 2012 – Jul 14, 2013

Label copy

Ritual fistfights and organized combats with crude weapons such as sticks had occurred in Venice since the medieval period, and the most famous took place yearly on a bridge near Campo San Barnabà, seen here. First, a public challenge was accepted; then the bridge was reinforced, if necessary. The fight began with two “armies” of about three hundred men, usually fishermen and arsenal workers, converging on the bridge to the sound of pipes, drums, and trumpets. Here, clothing and hairstyle clearly demarcate the divide between participants and spectators, with the patricians enjoying the spectacle of brawling workers from windows and balconies, like ringside seating for civic theater. Some are drawn into the fight. Fifteen years before this print was published, a particularly vicious fight leading to a church fire resulted in the cessation of bridge battles. Prints like these rendered the history of the city as colorful tales for a new generation of foreign tourists, mixing carnivalesque violence and splendor in a partly fictive image of Old Venice.

Venetian Drawings and Prints of the 18th Century
Jan 12, 1967 – Feb 05, 1967

Use & Feedback

Image use

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, artist
Domenico Lovisa (Italian, ca. 1690-ca. 1750), publisher
View of the Canal and Church of St. Barnabas with Battle of the Fists, from the series; Il Gran Teatro di Venezia (The Great Theater of Venice), ca. 1720
Etching on paper
Plate: 36.7 x 48.3 cm (14 7/16 x 19 inches)
Museum Membership Fund 66.307

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