Portrait of Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747), three-quarter-length

Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747) was appointed Field Marshal and Commander in Chief of the Forces of the Venetian Republic in 1715. Following his defence of Corfu against the Turks in 1715-1716, he became a Venetian hero; a statue was erected in his honour and he was granted a life pension from the city. Established at the Palazzo Loredan, near San Trovaso, in 1724 he was given a collection of eighty-eight paintings by the picture dealer Giovanni Battista Rota in default of a loan. This formed the core of the collection to which Schulenburg assiduously added for the rest of his life, eventually amassing over 950 paintings. Around 150 pictures, including many of the finest, were dispersed at Christie's in 1775 (12-13 April). These included one of Canaletto's greatest masterpieces, The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking West from S. Biagio (Sir John Soane's Museum, London), major pictures by Piazzetta at Cologne and Chicago, and exceptional works by Ceruti, Pittoni, Ricci and Carlevarijs.

Schulenburg commissioned dozens of portraits, both of himself and of members of the royal houses of Europe to display on his own walls to show his powerful connections. Giovanni Antonio Guardi produced for him at least forty, of which twenty were of the marshal himself, including one in armour, circa 1740, in Ca' Rezzonico, Venice, which shows him in a similar pose to the present, newly discovered picture, with his right arm outstretched and a battle scene visible in the background. This canvas adds a new work to the iconography of Schulenburg, to the portraits not only by Guardi, but also those by Rigaud (Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum), Ceruti (sold in these Rooms, 8 December 2017, lot 176) and the fine equestrian portrait by Nogari and Simonini (also sold in these Rooms, 10 July 1998, lot 80).