Venise

1797 · 150406 — 1797. ZANETTI Anton Maria and Marco BOSCHINI. Della pittura veneziana trattato in cui osservasi l'ordine del Busching e si conserva la dottrina e le definizioni del Zanetti. Two volumes. viii 145 i.e. 245 3 including final blank pp.; 256 i.e. 272 pp. each volume illustrated with an engraved frontispiece. 8vo 165 x 110 mm. bound alike in contemporary paste paper decorated with red flowers against a striped ground later glassine wrappers. Venice: Presso Francesco Tosi 1797. First edition based on Boschini's Le Minere della pittura 1664 and Zanetti's Della Pittura Veneziana 1771 with additions by the publisher Tosi. Both Boschini and Zanetti were of fundamental importance to the history of art in Venice. Schlosser-Magnino calls Boschini's guide "the first true artistic guide to Venice" and Zanetti's inventory of Venetian painting "one of the best in its genre" p. 548. This handy set combines their work into a comprehensive practical guide to monuments of Venetian art and architecture including a final section Istoria della Pittura Veniziana sic with biographies of artists; and an addition made in 1797 identifying paintings that were transported out of Venice by military force the same year. Marco Boschini 1613-1678 was a Venetian painter engraver and art dealer whose most important client Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici commissioned him to purchase Venetian paintings for the Medici collection. Zanetti 1706-1778 was the librarian to the famed Marciana Library in Venice for forty years and his familiarity with the art and artists of his city and his access to library records helped to produce his remarkable books. On Zanetti's guide Cicognara adds: "This is the best of the works which deal with Venetian painting and if every principal city possessed a book so arranged and executed we should have gathered together the materials for the best general history of art". Fossati-Bellani 2339. Cicogna 4661. Schlosser-Magnino pp. 548-549. Cicognara 2412 Zanetti & 4350 Boschini. unknown