Fantastic Landscape
ca. 1765
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Irregular, 61 1/4 x 74 1/2 in. (155.6 x 189.2 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Julia A. Berwind, 1953
Accession Number
53.225.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Francesco Guardi's *Fantastic Landscape* (ca. 1765), an oil on canvas measuring an impressive irregular 61¼ × 74½ inches, transports viewers to an imaginative Venetian vista. Painted during the height of Venice's 18th-century artistic golden age, Guardi, a master of the *veduta* tradition alongside contemporaries like Canaletto, infused his works with a whimsical, atmospheric flair. This large-scale piece exemplifies his *capriccio* style—fantastical architectural fantasies blending real ruins, boats, and sweeping landscapes into dreamlike scenes that evoke both nostalgia and wonder. The oil ...
About the Artist
Francesco Guardi · 1712–1793
Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (1712–1793) was born into a noble family of painters from Trentino who had settled in Venice. His father, Domenico Guardi, a minor painter trained in Vienna, died in 1716, leaving young Francesco to inherit the family workshop alongside his brothers Giovanni Antonio (Gian Antonio) and Niccolò, both artists, and sister Maria Cecilia, who married the renowned Giovanni Battis...