Due temi di storiografia della veduta nella mostra I vedutisti veneziani a Palazzo Ducale nel 1967

The 1967 exhibition 'I vedutisti veneziani del Settecento', held at Palazzo Ducale, was an attempt to situate Venetian production within the broader Italian artistic landscape. Pietro Zampetti, organiser of the Venetian exhibition as Director of Fine Arts for the city, ultimately presented a paradoxical narrative: on the one hand, he highlighted the uniqueness of the Lagoon city in the topographical genre by celebrating the role of urban depiction in the history of local art, while on the other, he suggested a Roman origin, following Giuliano Briganti’s work. As with Rodolfo Pallucchini’s 1959 exhibition on Venetian art in the 17th century, the aim was to unify the group of view painters active in 18th-century Venice, yet it ended up underscoring the complex geographical identities of these figures, who ultimately did not form a cohesive ensemble. Drawing on newly analysed archival materials from the Municipality of Venice and the Ateneo Veneto, this article describes the cultural context in which the exhibition was conceived, the original objectives of its curators and the actual results, as well as its critical reception. More broadly, the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of Vedutismo’s geography, specifically questioning whether Venetian view painting should be regarded as a central or peripheral phenomenon within 18th-century Italian art.