Venice – Gabriele Bella – Chronicler of a city

An artist I’d never heard of, assiduously painted the pomp and ceremony of Venice during the 18th century. His name was Gabriele Bella and he lived in Venice from 1730-1799.

Almost nothing is known about this prolific artist. He was a contemporary of Canaletto and Guardi, and painted in a similar, precise manner. We can deduce from the subjects that he painted, that most of his canvases were created between 1740 and 1782. He left behind a social commentary that is invaluable in our understanding of the city of Venice and its day to day life.

The beautiful and rambling Palazzo Querini Stampalia holds more than sixty of Gabriele Bella’s paintings. They hang in their own dedicated room on the second floor. The artist primarily painted events and activities in the city. These superb historical documents show us a huge range of snapshots of Venice in the 18th century.

Let’s start with a painting of the Women’s Regatta – possibly in 1760 (see below).

I particularly like this painting showing the Women’s Rowing races in the mid 18th century. I’m a little less keen on the voyeuristic ‘Casanova characters’ lasciviously watching the races from their private boats. However the detail of the boats, colour of the costumes and exceptional depiction of the scene is captivating. Gabriele Bella manages to achieve movement, determination and a dynamic racing spirit in the rowers. Four boats each rowed by two women compete on the Grand Canal to win their race. The flat bottomed boats look like a typical Venetian ‘sandolo’ still used in Venice today for racing and fishing. These boats are light weight and easy to manoeuvre in the shallow waters of the lagoon.

Next let’s look at ‘Wedding of a noble lady’ by Gabriele Bella. The scene is the fondamenta in front of the basilica of La Salute. The church was built in the 1630s to celebrate Venice surviving the plague. Construction was finished in 1687. So when Bella painted this picture the church was fairly new on the Venetian skyline – only about 40 years old. The architect Baldassare Longhena created a modern ‘Baroque style’ church in the heart of Venice – reminiscent of the churches in Rome.

Sposalizio di una nobil dama veneza di Gabriele Bella

Guests arrive by gondola for this grand and important Venetian wedding. The choice of venue is significant, the family have chosen the new and modern, imposing and elegant basilica of La Salute. Soldiers line the steps in a guard-of-honour, whilst black-robed gentlemen wearing wigs wait at the top of the steps. The Grand Canal is filled with gondolas jostling for position. The appearance of the church remains unchanged to this day.

La Salute (today) and the wedding party – mid 18th century (right)

We can work out the dates of other paintings by Gabriele Bella by looking at historical events that occurred in Venice around that time. For example, in 1782 Pope Pius VI visited Venice and blessed the population of the city. Bella painted a canvas representing this event which we can independently date as being around 1782.

However this methodology doesn’t always work. One of Bella’s most famous paintings depicts the freezing over of the Venetian Lagoon in 1708. This delightful picture shows people skating on the lagoon. But Bella wasn’t born until 1730. Let’s assume that his painting career began when he was 18 years of age, then that would have been 1748, 40 years after the Venetian lagoon froze over. So this painting must have been done partly from imagination and partly using accounts of parents and perhaps grandparents.

Lagoon freezes over in 1708 – painting by G Bella

The Querini Stampalia has more than 60 paintings by Gabriel Bella – I’ve included a small selection below. Every single canvas merits close attention and consideration. The similarity to contemporary artists like Canaletto, Guardi and Longhi is striking. I particularly like looking for the endless range of hats including millinery of every kind. Dashes of red often denote a cap, scarf or even a red stocking (similar to Canaletto).

The Fondazione Querini Stampalia is a very special and important cultural centre in Venice. The Palazzo Querini Stampalia was given to the city in 1869 by the owner Giovanni Querini Stampalia, as a centre of learning, education and culture. His generous legacy included the vast palazzo which sprawls over several buildings, a garden and courtyards and Querini’s personal library and art collection.

Today the Querini Stampalia is a hub of learning, study and research. Venetian students come here to use the library, the cafe and the atmospheric garden created by Carlo Scarpa in the 1960s. The mission of the ‘fondazione’ is to ‘promote the habit of rigorous study of all useful subjects’. It sounds more elegant in Italian, “promuovere il culto dei buoni studi, e delle utili discipline”

Giovanni Querini Stampalia c. 1840 (left) – Gabriele Bella La Piazzetta S. Marco (right)

Next time you are in Venice a trip to the Querini Stampalia is a must. Leave plenty of time for the Gabriele Bella room and the Carlo Scarpa modernity of the ground floor and gardens.

Notes:

Click on the link here: Palazzo Querini Stampalia to learn more about this important cultural institution in Venice.

Also – and importantly the 20th century architect Carlo Scarpa redesigned the ground floor of the palazzo in the 1960s creating a unique juxtaposition between old and new. He also created a Japanese-style garden. at the Carlo Scarpa.

The Querini Stampalia holds frequent temporary exhibitions. A favourite of mine was a few years back: The Art of Da Romano

I mentioned artists working at the same time as Gabriele Bella – these are their dates:

Canaletto – 1697 – 1768
Guardi – 1712-1793
Longhi – 1701-1785
Bella – 1730-1799

A favourite painting of mine – also at the Querini – by Pietro Longhi ‘Duck shooting on the Lagoon’ is a joy. Look carefully in the third photo – it’s the unfortunate duck!

Duck shooting – Pietro Longhi / 1701-1785

A note on the author – Janet Simmonds is an Art Historian and a Geographer. A graduate of the University of Oxford, she has a special interest in Venice and the history of tourism – especially The Grand Tour. She works as a guest lecturer in Italy for university groups and private individuals. She also works in Oxford, London and throughout Italy.

She also offers specialist travel services in Italy and Greece especially relating to art, history and culture. Although the odd Ferrari driving trip has been known to slip in! She is a Venice expert.

If you fancy joining us in Venice for the Historic Regatta – we usually have a small group in town! Venice – Regata Storica – 1st Sept, 2024 / in 2025 it’s the 6th Sept.