The caprice view is assembled from various North Italian and classical Roman motifs, including a bridge and a river in the foreground, domestic buildings and a prominent tower at the left, and a ruined temple at the right. Beyond these are visible more ruins, a temple facade, and a campanile. The scene is peopled by small, tightly painted figures which include boatmen attempting to fend off a sandola from the quayside in the centre, and a laden mule crossing the bridge.

The scene is one of seven in the Royal Collection from an original group twenty-four from the collections of Joseph Smith and Anton Maria Zanetti which were reproduced in etchings by Davide Fossati in 1743 (this image formed pl. xvi). All are similar in size and format, and all remain in their early eighteenth-century Venetian carved and gilt frames. A related drawing, RCIN 905927, dated 1710 bears the words 'disgeno a Valdagno', although the buildings in the painting bear no relation to that village.

An inscription on the reverse of the picture reads: 'Per Madama Smit', suggesting that the painting was made for Catherine Tofts, the singer, who married Joseph Smith c. 1716. It is even possible that the picture was a belated marriage gift to her from the painter, with whom she is likely to have become acquainted in London in 1708-10. She is portrayed in some of Marco Ricci's caricature scenes of operatic rehearsals, and also appeared in a production of the opera 'Pirro e Demetrio', for which Marco designed the scenery.