Giuseppe Zais (Forno di Canale, 1709 - Treviso, 1781), School of

Giuseppe Zais was an Italian painter of landscapes (vedutisti) who painted mostly in Venice. He was born in Forno di Canale in 1709, a town to the north of Venice in the Veneto, and he moved to Venice in 1725. Studying under Venetian landscape masters like Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788), he quickly established himself as one of the pre-eminent painters of landscape in Venice for the next 50 years. His later work (1770/80s) is stylistically characterised by thicker, heavier brushstrokes of rich colour. 

The similarities between some of Zais’s paintings and our Venetian landscape clearly evidence the influence of Zais’s late work. Not only are the stylistic elements similar (heavy texture of paint, thick brushstrokes and rich colours), but other elements of the painting seem directly taken from Zais’s stock-figure models of staffage. Compare the leaning peasant in the yellow vest: repeated in Landscape with River and Bridge in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice; in Italian Wooded Landscape in the Bridgeport Museum; and in our own landscape’s central figure holding the fishing rod. 

Bibliography:

• Wittkower, Rudolf, Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750 (London: Penguin Books, 1980)