Provenance
Prince Alberto Giovanelli [1876-1937], Venice, until c. 1930.[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome); purchased 1931 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] According to typed note from the Kress Records, NGA curatorial files.
[2] According to typed note from the Kress Records, NGA curatorial files, and Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:268; see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2167.
Accession Number
1939.1.63
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 50 x 61.7 cm (19 11/16 x 24 5/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Italian
Background & Context
Background Story
The Faint from c. 1744 is another of Longhi's genre scenes of Venetian domestic life, depicting a woman fainting in the intimate, observational manner that distinguishes his best work. The fainting subject—a woman overcome by emotion in a domestic setting—is typical of the social incidents that Longhi recorded with the precision of an ethnographer, and the c. 1744 date places this in his most productive period, when he was producing the small-scale genre scenes that are his most accomplished works.
Cultural Impact
The Faint is important in Longhi's oeuvre because it demonstrates the social incident subject that distinguishes his genre scenes from the more formal subjects of Venetian painting. The fainting woman in a domestic setting shows Longhi's talent for recording the small dramas of Venetian social life with the same precision that other painters brought to grander subjects, making his paintings invaluable documents of 18th-century Venetian social customs.
Why It Matters
The Faint is Longhi's domestic drama: a woman overcome by emotion in a domestic setting, recorded with the ethnographic precision that distinguishes his genre scenes of Venetian social life. The c. 1744 painting shows Longhi's talent for finding drama in the small incidents of Venetian domestic life.
![A Venetian Procurator of San Marco [recto]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/11519f5e-9b5f-4b3d-9c94-dec0a18aa95c/full/400,/0/default.jpg)
![Portrait of a Procurator [verso]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/010ac9b4-3c13-4313-9e66-d8de843ac015/full/400,/0/default.jpg)
