Catalogue entry
The Turner scholar C.F. Bell annotated Finberg’s 1909
Inventory entry (‘On the Cross-Canal, between Bridge of Sighs and Rialto’): ‘Ponte della Guerra and Palazzo Tasca-Papafava &c’.
1 These stand on the winding Rio de San Zulian south-east of the Rialto, with an imposing entrance arch flanked by Ionic columns off the short quay north of the bridge, now leading to Instituto San Giuseppe, although the resemblance to Turner’s composition, with a similar feature at the centre, is only generic. Nevertheless, it was exhibited and published in line with Bell’s note
2 until being correctly identified by Ian Warrell in 2003.
3In fact, the view is north-west along the Rio di San Luca, towards its entrance into the Grand Canal west of the Rialto Bridge. Turner had first recorded the view along the narrow canal in pencil in the 1819
Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate
D14486; Turner Bequest CLXXV 89a).
4 The imposing central block is the back of the Palazzo Grimani, with the elaborate entrance to its small courtyard beside the canal. The pilastered west end of the church of San Luca is shown towards the right, although the bridge aligned just to the right (south) of its central door is not hinted at. It appears as a simple stone or rendered arch (it is now a steel structure known as the Ponte del Teatro) spanning the middle distance in a variant colour study on grey paper (
D32215; CCCXVII 30), which has a detailed pencil drawing of much the same scene, albeit without the bridge, on its verso (
D40159). See under
D32215 for other views of the palace.
Considerable further differences in detail and alignment suggest that the two sides of the other sheet may be independent, but see the discussion under
D32215 in terms of their possible interrelationship, perhaps mediated by work on the present study (
D32216; CCCXVII 31).
5 The left-hand part of this work appears quite congruent with the corresponding half of the pencil view, which does not show the bridge either.
6 Towards the right aspects diverge: the palace is broader here, the small building to the right of the arch much reduced in prominence, and the façade of the church itself show as if in elevation, rather than receding along the canal.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
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