View Of St. Mark's Square In Venice, Italy. Souvenir Of The Grand Tour, 19th Century

View of St. Mark's Square in Venice, from the arcades and the entrance to the "Merceria Orologio". On the left, the Gothic façade of St. Mark's Basilica is visible, and behind it, the Doge's Palace, while on the right, the grand façades of the square can be seen. The silhouette of the famous Campanile is hidden by the portico's pillar. In the distance, beyond the Grand Canal, one can make out the Abbey of St. George (Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore) and the "Columns of San Todaro" which line the canal and mark the entrance to the square. In the middle of the square, a row of red and white pennants recalls that at the beginning of the 19th century, Venice and the Veneto region were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Austria-Hungary), whose capital was Vienna. The numerous figures populating this depiction of Venice contribute to making the scene very lively. The watercolor bears several inscriptions in the lower left corner: "after C. Gilio 1833" and "A. Favier 1**6" (date illegible). Image dimensions: 35 x 44.2 cm. Frame dimensions: 51.3 x 60.8 cm.