Towards the Basilica of S. Maria della Salute, Venice
oil on canvas
Signed ‘S Mulholland’ lower left
76.5 x 127cm
“The Basilica, a work of the Italian architect Baldassare Longhena, was
commissioned by the Venetian government as a votive temple to the Virgin with
the hope of bringing an end to the devastating plague of 1630.
Begun in 1631, it was completed in 1687, five years after the death of its architect.
It was said that it was Longhena who finally brought together the two different
moving spirits of late sixteenth century architecture, bringing Venetian architecture
more into line with the advanced and innovative forms of Rome.
The harmony of the building is manifest in the elegant spiral volutes,
surmounted
by sculpture, that support the imposing cupola”.
Reference
Giandomenico Romanelli (editor), Venice Art and Architecture, volume
II, Konemann, page 474
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