Venetian School, 19th Century, View Of Venice With The Doge’s Palace

Venetian school, 19th century
View of Venice with the Doge’s Palace and the horizon of the Venetian Lagoon
Oil on canvas, cm 78 x 101
With frame, cm 100 x 122

The unusual perspective chosen by the artist for the present Venetian view, raised at a bird’s eye view, allows to clear the painting from the navigated tradition of Venetian vedutism. The scenery returned by the painter, which allows to appreciate the jewels of the lagoon, including basin and mainland with San Giuliano and Porto Marghera, is also justifiable by the chronological height of the painting, from the beginning of the 19th century.
The bird’s eye view suggests a shot from above on the opposite pier in front of the church of S. Giorgio Maggiore. For the present painting, given the moment of composition, and given the extraordinary correctness of each monument, it would be necessary to ask if the artist did not know perfectly the Venetian topography, or if he did not observe the whole, with an optical instrument, from a raised floor of the monastic complex of St. George. Beyond the glazed sea with the line of Rio dei Mercanti, the Bridge of Straw on the right, the romanized Bridge of Sighs hidden in the shadow of the channel, and the immediately recognizable Doge’s Palace and Palace of Prisons is in fact possible to see, beyond the domes of St. Mark, in perfect alignment: the bell tower of the church of Ss. Apostoli in the sestiere of Cannaregio, the building of the Scuola Grande della Misericordia and immediately behind the bell tower of the church of Madonna dell'Orto. Scrolling the horizon to the left, you can also see the bell tower of the church of S. Bartolomeo di Rialto, opposite the Ponte di Rialto.
Around the Piazzetta San Marco, cheerfully populated, are the famous Venetian treasures: in the foreground the columns of San Tòdaro (Teodoro di Amasea, Byzantine) and San Marco; on the left, the Sansoviniana Library.