Pietro Longhi (1701 - 1785) - La Confessione

Pietro Longhi (Venice, 1701 - 1785)
The Confession
Oil on canvas, 54.5 x 44.5 cm
With frame 67 x 59 cm

The canvas under examination depicts a subject, The Confession, echoed in several variants by Pietro Longhi. This particular version refers to a work by Longhi preserved at the Galleria Querini Stampalia in Venice, from which Marco Alvise made an engraving, preserved at the Luigi Bailo Museum in Treviso by Marco Alvise. On careful observation, one can notice that the engraving shows slight differences from the Stampalia piece; differences that become similarities when related to the work analyzed here. For example, in addition to the presence of the dog, note the closed eyes of the central female figure rather than open, and the symbol at the upper right instead of a clock. Regarding the examined canvas, Longhi repeatedly dedicated himself to the subject of the Sacraments and to the very Confession. Another similar work is exhibited at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

The Venetian painter Pietro Longhi, born Pietro Antonio Falca, was born in Venice in 1701. His first training took place in his father's workshop, a silversmith. From a young age, Pietro showed a great aptitude for art, and his father encouraged him to master drawing. He met the famous painter Antonio Balestra, with whom he worked, learning the art of painting. From around 1734, Longhi abandoned religious subject matter for a period to devote himself to genre painting. He also spent time in Bologna, where he encountered the painting of Gambarini, a refined painter of genre scenes. Upon returning to Venice, he devoted himself to painting scenes of everyday life of the Venetian bourgeoisie, following the style of Nicolas Lancret albeit more ironically. His paintings can provide a detailed documentation of Venetian life, reflecting the artist’s interest in the social life of the era. In the first half of the 1850s he dedicated himself to representing careers, i.e., scenes of real and common popular and bourgeois activities. Around the 1860s his tones darken with less polished perspective lines, very close to Rembrandt’s style. In 1763 Pietro Longhi became director of the Pisani Academy of Drawing and Engraving and devoted himself to portraits with the help also of his son Alessandro. The great Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) praises Longhi’s dedication to representing the manias of contemporary society. Indeed, Longhi’s work, full of humor and irony, is somewhat like Goldoni’s comedies. The artist is also mentioned in Goldoni’s works “Le commedie.” Their activities move in parallel on two different artistic fronts, that of theater and that of art.

The frame is provided as a complimentary gift, therefore it cannot be grounds for a return or complaint.

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