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Impressionist & Modern Art
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3215* VITTORIO ZECCHIN(1878 Murano 1949)
Le Mille e una notte. 1914.
Oil on canvas.
With the monogramm lower right: VZ.
140 x 110 cm.
The authenticity of the work has been
confirmed by Prof. Giovanni Mariacher,
Venice, 12 April 1972.
Provenance:
- Giacomo Cappelin (Palazzo da Mula,
Murano), Cappelin & Co.
- Semenzato, 1978.
- Private collection, Italy.
Vittorio Zecchin was born in 1878 in Mu-
rano; his father worked in a glass factory.
Although he spent his childhood and youth
in Murano surrounded by the glassworks,
he had no interest in the art of glass and
instead studied painting at the Accademia
di Belle Arti in Venice. However, already at
the age of 23 he gave up his ambitions, as,
in his opinion, he could not get on with the
uninspired style of teaching there, and also
did not believe that anyone would listen to
his ideas. So, in 1901 he left the Acade-
my and worked for some years as a civil
servant, until in 1908, he was so greatly
moved by a new artistic movement, that
he then joined it. This was a group of ar-
tists who were strongly influenced by Klimt
and the whole movement of the Vienne-
se Secession. Their work was on display
between 1908 and 1920 at the Museum of
Modern Art in Ca‘ Pesaro in Venice.
Fascinated by the mystical and symbolist
painting of the time, as well as the Art
Nouveau movement, he travelled to Vi-
enna around 1910, in order to get to know
the artists and their work in situ. There
he met Gustav Klimt, who was to have a
lasting influence on his creative work.
His high point as a painter came in 1914,
when he completed "Le Mille e una Notte",
a 30 meter-long wall painting, comprising
12 individual works depicting the proces-
sion of Aladdin and his entourage, as he
goes to ask the Sultan for his daughter’s
hand. The work was commissioned by the
Hotel Terminus in Venice, which intended
the painting for the dining room.
The present work has been bought by
the antiquarian Giacomo Capellin, and it
has been hanged in his showroom in the
renaissance palazzo Da Mula in Murano
(see the photograph).
The Museum in C’a Pesaro Palace in Ve-
nice today owns 6 of the 12 paintings, so
that the 6 remaining works, of which one is
offered here at auction, remain in private
hands.
CHF 20 000 / 30 000
(€ 18 520 / 27 780)
Palazzo Da Mula a Murano. Circa 1925 with the present painting.