Venice, Piazza San Marco

Dario Succi was the first to suggest that Apollonio Domenichini, who enrolled in the Fraglia de' Pittori in 1757, should be identified with the formerly anonymous artist known as the Master of the Langmatt Foundation Views, a theory that has now gained general acceptance within the scholarly community. Succi discovered Domenichini's name in correspondence between the Venetian art dealer Giovanni Maria Sasso and the English minister, Sir John Strange (D. Succi, 'Apollonio Domenichini: il Maestro della Fondazione Langmatt,' Da Canaletto a Zuccarelli, exhibition catalogue, Udine, 2003, pp. 103-7). His eponymous works in the Langmatt Foundation, Baden, comprise a set of nine pictures (each approximately 46 x 73 cm.) and a set of four smaller views (approximately 25 x 38 cm; see the exhibition catalogue, Mythos Venedig, Baden, June-October 1994, pp. 62-117). Working in the 1740s and '50s, as can be deduced from topographical details in his paintings, Domenichini no doubt benefited from Canaletto's English sojourn, and his vedute proved extremely popular with Grand Tourists. His pictures are distinguished by their cool palette and slight distortion of perspective, which heightens the grandeur of his compositions.