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an oil painting of a crowd of people gathered around a buildingan old wooden frame with two canvass hanging on the wall
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38 - ALESSANDRO PIAZZA (attributed to)
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Estimate €8,000 - €12,000
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Description
ALESSANDRO PIAZZA (attributed to) (documented in Venice and Rome between 1691 and 1700) The Fist Fight on the San Barnaba Bridge in Venice Oil on canvas, 109 x 167 cm The work constitutes an interesting historical and visual record of Venetian traditions. The painting, in fact, depicts the climactic moment of the ‘Battle on the Bridge of Fists’, a classic Venetian ‘contest’ between the Nicolotti (fishermen from the San Nicolò dei Mendicolli district) and the Castellani (seafarers from the neighbouring Castello district). The artist frames the scene theatrically, capturing the atmosphere of the moment and recounting every detail of the battle between the factions. Until 1705, the contest took place several times a year on various bridges across the city, the most contested of which was the Ponte di San Barnaba. Registered with the Fraglia dei Pittori Veneziani (Venetian Painters’ Guild) between 1691 and 1701, Piazza is subsequently documented in Rome, where he lived in the parish of Santo Stefano del Cacco (see R. Carloni, ‘Parrocchia di Santo Stefano del Cacco’, in: *Artisti e Artigiani a Roma*, II, based on the *Stati delle Anime* of 1700, 1725, 1750, 1775, edited by E. Debenedetti, in *Studi sul Settecento Romano*, 21, Rome 2005, pp. 423–425, no. 20). The painting in question is unquestionably to be dated to the artist’s Venetian period and shows clear affinities with the work of Joseph Heintz the Younger (Augsburg, c. 1600; Venice, 1678), as demonstrated by a direct comparison with the painting sold by the Dorotheum in Vienna on 10 November 2021, lot 100. Key bibliography: E. Favaro, L’arte dei pittori Veneziani e i suoi statuti, Florence 1975, p. 176 M. Lucco, ‘Foresti a Venezia nel Seicento’, in La pittura nel Veneto. The Seventeenth Century, II, Milan 2001, under the relevant entry D. D’Anza, Notes on the Festive Works of Joseph Heintz the Younger, in Arte in Friuli Arte a Trieste, 24, 2005 C. Tonini, ‘Alessandro Piazza’s pictorial cycle depicting seven episodes from the life of Francesco Morosini’, in *Francesco Morosini 1619–1694: the man, the doge, the commander*, Rome 2019, pp. 76–81
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About the sale FROM THE CURTIS COLLECTIONS AT PALAZZO BARBARO: PAINTINGS, FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART
Auction location
Auction time 09/29/2026 at 2:45 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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