Capriccio with a Palace Courtyard

The artwork

An imaginary courtyard, with towering Gothic arches, a stone staircase and a small bridge, where a few figures move in the half-light. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The warm brown of the stone, the light coming through the arches, the small figures.
• A mysterious, theatrical picture that gives depth to a study or a library.
• A gift for anyone who loves architecture and imaginary places.

Alongside their views, the faithful portraits of the city, eighteenth-century Venetian painters loved to paint capricci: invented places where real and imaginary buildings mingle freely. They were a game of the imagination and at the same time a test of skill, because building a believable space required a deep knowledge of the rules of perspective.

Michele Marieschi (1710-1743), a Venetian painter who died at just thirty-two, was a master of this game, and his love of theatrical spaces shows in every detail: in the great arches, in the staircase climbing upwards, in the light that comes from far away and leaves the foreground in shadow. He painted it between 1735 and 1741, in his most active years. The original is in the National Museum in Warsaw.

In a study or a library it opens a window onto a dreamed Venice. An original gift for anyone who loves art.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass