The view is from about the middle of the Canale della Giudecca off the church of the Redentore, looking north to the arches over the doorways of the Emporio dei Sali (or Magazzini del Sale) on the left, apparently with the campanile of Santo Stefano brought into the composition from a little further west. Beyond are the familiar domes and twin campanili of the church of Santa Maria della Salute, with the Seminario Patriarcale picked out in fluid white, leading on to the less clearly defined Dogana. In the distance at the centre, the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) is shown as overly tall and slender, with the domes of the Basilica also somewhat emphatic above the shadowy Piazzetta side of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace). Towards the right, the dome of San Zaccaria stands above the Riva degli Schiavioni, and the panorama ends with a white façade likely intended as the church of the Pietà.
Without further elaboration, in 1881 John Ruskin categorised this work among twenty-five Turner Bequest subjects ‘chiefly in Venice. Late time, extravagant, and showing some of the painter’s worst and final faults; but also, some of his peculiar gifts in a supreme degree.’
1 Ian Warrell has highlighted the close compositional similarities with the painting
Venice, from the Canale della Giudecca, Chiesa di S. Maria della Salute, &c., exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840, just prior to Turner’s third and last visit to the city (Victoria and Albert Museum, London; engraved 1859–61: Tate impression
T06361).
2Warrell’s suggestion that the painting ‘was perhaps based’ on this ‘simple colour study’
3 would thus imply its association with the second stay, in 1833. Alternatively, although it, Tate
D32207 and
D32208 (Turner Bequest CCCXVII 22, 23) ‘set out the compositions of paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy before the 1840 visit, ... these could be interpreted as instances of Turner revisiting a subject he had already treated.’
4 Which came first in this case remains a moot point, as the numerous differences in the disposition and elaboration of the shipping, proportions and other details to make it clear that the one was not a precise transcription of the other. Compare also Tate
D32205 (Turner Bequest CCCXVII 20), which echoes a painting exhibited just before the 1833 stay.
