The Ridotto by Guiuseppe de Gobbis

After going to the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park I chose to talk about the oil on canvas painting, The Ridotto ,(ca1790-after 1787).The reason why I was drawn to this piece is because all the people depicted on the painting are wearing harlequin masks, I found curious that even when they appear to be rich people wearing elegant suits and beautiful dresses they are also wearing these funny and mysterious masks. The Ridotto is part of a series of painting created by Giuseppe de Gobbis, depicting people while going to the theatres, The Ridotto is located behind The Nun’s Parlor which is part of the same series of paintings.The painting professed to me how the rich people in Venice during the 18^th century also have a sense of humor and the need to have fun. Since there are children depicted on the image, it also makes me feel a sense of darkness and mystery mixed with the happiness of adults and children. The viewpoint of the artist is to show the elegance and aristocracy of the people while going to the theaters but, at the same time he wanted to make notable the sense of humor they used to have in such an elegant place. Giuseppe de Gobbis usually was commissioned by some religious groups, but for this piece of art in specific it is not quite sure who commissioned it. Ill Ridotto was created to show the elegance of the Venetian people while going to the theaters, the artist intended viewers are people living in Venice, including rich and poor people and also foreigners visiting Venice, in order to make them know how important and wealthy Venice used to be during this time. In my opinion the artist wanted to show how the high class people in Venice used to dress and entertain themselves.