Catalogue entry
Finberg later annotated his 1909
Inventory entry (‘View on canal’): ‘? End of Giudecca’.
1 Turned both ways horizontally, this somewhat scrappy page may, rather than the Canale and Isola della Giudecca, show the Riva degli Schiavoni looking east along the Bacino waterfront and then south-eastwards across the Canale di San Marco towards the loosely outlined trees of the Giardini Pubblici.
This would make the arches in the foreground those at the south-east corner of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), beside the Ponte della Paglia, with the first building beyond being the Pietà, distinguished by the thermal clerestory window on its west side and rough indications of its half-finished entrance façade. Compare the small sketch from this direction on folio 4 recto (
D31797).
Reinforcing the case for this identification of the main view, at the bottom right corner, the other way up, is a detail of the elevation of the south front of the Pietà, its marble facing and half-columns only complete to the height of the central doorway; compare a view in the 1819
Venice to Ancona sketchbook (Tate
D14500; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 7), and the slighter variant on folio 10 verso of the present book (
D31810).
Matthew Imms
September 2018
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