The picture is one of a series of eleven English neo-Palladian subjects painted collaboratively by Antonio Visentini and Fransceso Zuccarelli for Consul Joseph Smith. Smith and Visentini shared a great interest in the designs and theories of the sixteenth-century Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. Smith published a reprint of Palladio's architectural treatise, I Quattro Libri, in 1768, and in 1743-4 he had commissioned from Canaletto a series of pictures depicting Venetian monuments, including the principal buildings of Palladio in imaginary settings. It was perhaps the combination of their interest in Palladio and the commission to Canaletto that prompted Smith to commission the series of overdoor capricci of English neo-Palladian buildings to which this image belongs. Visentini painted the buildings, whilst Francesco Zuccarelli painted most of the figures and all of the landscape settings. They date from 1746 and were possibly intended as overdoors for the Consul's villa at Mogliano, on the Venetian mainland. Eight of the views were hung in the Entrance Hall at Buckingham House by 1819. They were moved to the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle in 1828. Designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, Eastbury, in Dorset, was begun in 1781 for George Dodington and continued for his nephew, the politician George Bubb Dodington on his succession to the estate two years later. In 1775 the house was largely demolished by a descendant; now only the service quarters remain. The architectural portion of this work is based on the elevation engraved in Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, as the Bagnio at Eastbury. It is possible that the Bagnio was chosen as the subject because Visentini would have considered it more Palladian in style, the main house being notably Baroque. The Bagnio appears at an angle, with a paved terrace before it and a dual flight of steps leading to the door. Above is a portico loggia, with a balustrade, on which figures lean; the shadows that fall on the inside of the loggia create a convincing sense of hollowness. The rigorously geometric lines of the terrace attest to Visentini's skill as mathematical illustrator. On the terrace a gentleman, recently dismounted from his horse, holds out his arms to a child accompanied by a nurse; in the background is a landscape. Signed and dated extreme right: 'Visentini et Zuccarelli / Fecerunt Venetiis 1746.' Adapted from Canaletto & the Art of Venice, London, 2017.