Joseph Mallord William Turner

“San Benedetto” is a mistake of Turner’s; there being no church nor quarter belonging to that saint on either side of the Giudecca, or in any possible way included in this view ... and the only way of accounting for the title given, is that Turner might have half remembered the less frequently occurring name of St. Biagio, under whose protection the “fondamenta” – or block of houses on the left of this picture – with some spacious barracks, are verily placed. St. Biagio has no church, however; ... The buildings on the right are also, for the most part, imaginary in their details ... and yet, without one single accurate detail, the picture is the likest thing to what it is meant for – the looking out of the Giudecca landwards, at sunset – of all that I have ever seen. The buildings have, in reality, that proportion and character of mass, as one glides up the centre of the tide stream: they float exactly in that strange, mirage-ful, wistful way in the sea mist – rosy ghosts of houses without foundations; the blue line of poplars and copse about the Fusina marshes shows itself just in that way on the horizon; the flowing gold of the water, and quiet gold of the air, face and reflect each other just so; the boats rest so, with their black prows poised in the midst of the amber flame, or glide by so, the boatman stretched far aslope upon his deep-laid oar.3