Panorama of Venice from the Bacino di San Marco, Including the Project for the Proposed Teatro Manin

Francesco Guardi

ca. 1788–93 · Pen and brown ink, gray wash, and a little body color · Robert Lehman Collection

This large panorama bearing a dedication to Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of Venice, was probably intended for engraving, a fact which explains its relatively high degree of finish. The drawing was likely intended to mark the initiation of a theater (inserted at left center) in honor of the Doge. As history would have it, Teatro Manin was never built, and Ludovico Manin fared no better. On May 12, 1797, he surrendered the government of the Venetian Republic to the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte, ending a millennium of republican independence. On either side of the dedication tablet bearing the Doge’s coat of arms Guardi offers a key to the buildings with corresponding numbers in the drawing. Topographic exactitude was important in this instance as a context for the prominently sited theater to come.

Artist

Francesco Guardi

Date

ca. 1788–93

Medium

Pen and brown ink, gray wash, and a little body color

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975