The view is from the south side of the Grand Canal, looking east towards the Bacino. As Ian Warrell has noted, Turner’s slightly unclear inscription in watercolour at the bottom left (probably ‘BALBI’,
1 but tentatively transcribed as ‘BAIDI’ in earlier publications
2), appears to relate to the bottom right corner, where the rusticated structure is the ground-floor wing curving forward at the side of the entrance to the Palazzo Balbi Valier, detached but immediately west of the Palazzo Loredan-Cini, with its twin balconies high above the entrance to the Rio di San Vio. Beyond is the sunlit west side of the Palazzo Barbarigo
3 overlooks the Campo San Vio, with the adjoining Palazzi Da Mula Morosini and Centani Morosini further on.
Receding towards the centre are the lower Ca’ Biondetti, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni,
4 and Casa Artom, with the west side of the higher Palazzo Dario catching the light at the near end of a compressed run of palaces which today terminate with the prominent Gothic-revival Palazzo Genovese. The porch of the Dogana is lightly indicated at the centre, overlooking the entrance to the canal and the distant Bacino. Above this sequence rise the Baroque domes and campanili of the church of Santa Maria della Salute, catching the early afternoon light from the south. The largest building on the left is the Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande
5 (now with modern windows on the blank west side shown here). Turner was staying at the Hotel Europa (the Palazzo Giustinian), not far beyond on that side; see the parallel subsection of Europa subjects.
6In 1857, reflecting his intense interest in Venetian architecture, John Ruskin characterised this work as:
A study of local colour, showing the strong impression on the painter’s mind of the opposition of the warm colour of the bricks and tawny tiles to the whiteness of the marble, as characteristic of Venice. He is not, however, right in this conception. When, in ancient days, the marble was white, the brick was covered with cement and frescoes; and the lapse of time, which has caused the frescoes to fall away, has changed the marble to a dark or tawny colour.
