From Lisbon to Venice: Gulbenkian Guardi Paintings at Ca' Rezzonico

From Lisbon to Venice: Gulbenkian Guardi Paintings at Ca' Rezzonico

A noteworthy selection of works by Francesco Guardi from the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon has arrived in Venice and is on display at Ca' Rezzonico. The exhibition pairs paintings with drawings to provide a fuller picture of the Venetian vedutista's creative process.

The show highlights key characteristics of Guardi's art: lively brushwork, luminous treatment of architecture, and an atmosphere that evokes a city in transition. The drawings in the museum's holdings reveal preparatory stages and help trace how sketches evolved into finished canvases.

• Works on display: ten paintings dated approximately between 1770 and 1790.
• Notable addition: a selection of drawings from Ca' Rezzonico that illuminate the artist's working method.
• Location: Ca' Rezzonico, first floor (portego) and galleries devoted to the 18th century.

The meeting of these two collections allows visitors to appreciate both the excellent preservation and quality of the Lisbon paintings and the compositional inventiveness preserved in Venice's drawings. Guardi's Venice stands apart from Canaletto's geometric certainty: it is defined by trembling paint and shifting light that render architecture as expressive matter.

Practical advice: check Ca' Rezzonico's official website for opening hours and ticketing information; allow sufficient time to study both paintings and drawings to fully understand the artist's creative progression.