Francesco Tironi (? c. 1745-1797 Venice)

While erroneous attributions have for many years deprived Tironi of a distinct and independent oeuvre, it has simultaneously
established his position amongst some of the greatest of Italian Vedute painters; indeed in the past early works by Francesco Guardi have been attributed incorrectly to Tironi. The limited information we possess currently about the life of this enigmatic figure establishes that he was an ecclesiastic and a native of Friuli. To immediate contemporaries he was primarily known as a draughtsman, specialising in Venetian views. His Venetian scenes were admired and engraved by Antonio Sandi in twenty-four prints published in 1779. This body of drawings forms the basis of Tironi’s oeuvre, and examples can be found in the Albertina, Vienna; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Liverpool; and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. In these extant drawings, Tironi has captured essential vignettes of Venetian history, recalling a lost era of great prosperity for the
islands of the Venetian lagoon. This pair of views shows Tironi at his most accomplished. While essentially recording the same topography as his rivals, Tironi managed to find unique expression in the meticulous accuracy of a draughtsman’s hand, striking a balance between the serene beauty and bustling reality of Venetian life.