Venedig huldigt Caterina Cornaro

Favorite
Share
Permalinkhttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/4587/venedig-huldigt-caterina-cornaro
IIIF
Expand

Künstler*in Hans Makart (1840 Salzburg – 1884 Wien)

Object typeGemälde
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
400 × 1060 cm
SignatureUnbezeichnet
Inventory number5838
Locations Derzeit nicht ausgestellt
From the mid-nineteenth century, the art market speculated with the appeal of monumental paintings. The aim was to use them to attract potential buyers to sales exhibitions. For several weeks in 1873, the Vienna World’s Fair transformed the city into an artistic center of international standing. The gallerists Miethke and Wawra commissioned a history painting from Hans Makart intending to display this at the rival exhibition to the official art show. The artist did not disappoint. He presented Venice Pays Homage to Caterina Cornaro—a symbolic depiction of the city’s reverence toward the doge’s daughter married to the king of Cyprus. The work is the epitome of the “sensation picture”—a virtuoso piece intended for a mass audience that was considered to have served its purpose if it became the talk of the town.