Veneza - Itália
National Gallery Londres Inglaterra
OST - 121x182 - 1740
Looking across
the basin of San Marco, this vast view captures the scale and splendour of a
ceremony taking place along the waterfront. Boats carrying spectators and
animated gondoliers surround the gold and red state barge or Bucintoro, its upper deck crowded with figures.
Every year on Ascension Day, the Bucintoro was
rowed out onto the lagoon where the doge (the head of the Venetian state) cast
a blessed ring into the water to symbolise the marriage of Venice and the sea.
A large crowd
gathers along the quay; more spectators spill onto the balconies of the Doge’s
Palace to the right and peer out from the bell tower of San Marco beyond.
Canaletto conjured up this eager audience with great precision, in places using
careful dots of paint to create the swarm of people. A hazy light illuminates
the facades of the buildings and casts beautiful, soft reflections on the
water.
This pair of
paintings – A Regatta on the Grand Canal and The Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day –
captures two of the most popular annual festivals in eighteenth-century Venice:
the gondola races and the Wedding of the Sea ceremony. Both fell into decline
during the late eighteenth century but were revived in 1965 and are still
enjoyed today.
Both events
celebrate the history of the Venetian Republic. The regatta commemorates a
naval victory against the forces of Dalmatia (modern-day Croatia) around the
year 1000; the Wedding of the Sea relates to a peace treaty of 1178 between the
Holy Roman Empire and the papacy, witnessed by the Doge (elected head) of
Venice. He received a blessed ring from the Pope.
The paintings
were made around 1740, when Canaletto produced his most commercially successful
works. They were designed to appeal to wealthy foreign visitors as a reminder
of Venice’s outstanding beauty and unique entertainments.
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