Several ‘arches in decay’ characterize the production of capricci by Francesco Guardi, especially in his mature and later phase. The work in question belongs to a group of four moderately large canvases previously with Knoedler Gallery in New York. Morassi describes the series of four paintings representing a Capriccio with bridges on a canal (Morassi, 1975, n. 854), a Capriccio with a bridge, a Roman Ara and an arch in decay (Morassi, 1975, n. 863), a Capriccio with arch in decay on the bank of the laguna (Morassi 1975, n. 980) as ‘highly remarkable and of the highest level’.

Together with its pendant, the Capriccio with bridges on a canal, the present painting was bought by Ernest Hamil, a Chicago collector, in the thirties of the last century, who lent the paintings to the Guardi exhibition held in Springfield in 1937.

Francesco Guardi painted different versions of this composition, all with slight variations: a first one, already published by Morassi, in the Galtrucco collection in Milan, and previously in the Crespi Morbio collection (fig. 1); a second one (fig. 2), not listed in the Morassi, has recently brought to our attention by Doctor Robert La France, director of the David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University, Muncie (Indiana), where the work has been kept since 1995.

The three canvases present vast uncultivated fields and different figures in the foreground; on the background on the right, nearby the remains of a wall by a large portal, is a rustic farmhouse. The Galtrucco version presents a small watercourse on the right, crossed by a little bridge, while darker tones characterize the Muncie version.
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The preparatory drawing for this group of works (pen and watercolour on white paper, 190 x 262 mm, Fig. 2) is today kept in the Correr Museum in Venice; made with dark pen line drawing and black blurred shadings, this composition is under many aspects comparable to the capriccio in question.

Pallucchini chronologically places the work around the 1780’s; on the other hand, Morassi, based on the painting’s style characterized by intense chromatics and impetuous brushwork, believes the painting was made around 1760 and 1770, thus slightly anticipating the Pallucchini’s hypothesis. Conclusively, Pallucchini highlights how, he painting strongly recalls scenery elements of Canaletto’s etchings under the compositional aspect.

We would like to thank Doctor Robert La France for having pointed out the painting by Francesco Guardi of the David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University.