A drawing of the Bacino (the point where the Grand Canal meets the lagoon) in Venice on Ascension day. From left to right the following structures are visible: the Zecca, the Libreria, the Campanile, the Torre dell'Orologio, the column of San Teodoro, San Marco, the column of San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo delle Prigioni, and Palazzo Dandolo. In front of the Palazzo Ducale are two ships, the fusta and the Bucintoro.

The view is taken from the Bacino, directly in front of the Zecca. On the left are the Zecca and Libreria with the excessively slender Campanile behind. Beyond the Piazzetta, with both columns correctly placed, are seen the Torre dell’Orologio and the south flank of San Marco with only the western dome visible. Next is the Palazzo Ducale, drawn in exaggerated two-point perspective, and to the right, rapidly diminishing in size, the Prigioni and indications of the Palazzo Dandolo. Canaletto narrowed and heightened most of the buildings - especially the Palazzo Ducale, which should be much wider - to squeeze a panoramic view into a normally proportioned composition.

In front of the Palazzo Ducale are moored the Doge’s galleon, the fusta, covered with a striped awning, and the Bucintoro: the scene depicted is thus the Ascension Day celebration. It is likely that Canaletto here recorded the ceremony of 26 May 1729, the first Sensa at which the new gilded Bucintoro appeared. Although it had been used for the ceremony the previous year, the allegorical sculptures decorating the new Bucintoro had not then been gilded, and the excitement generated by the spectacle of 1729 must explain why Canaletto was commissioned to produce at least three large paintings of the scene soon thereafter: for the ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor (a pair to a painting of The Reception of Conte Giuseppe Bolagnos at the Palazzo Ducale on 29 May 1729); for the French ambassador (Pushkin Museum, Moscow); and reputedly for Louis XV (Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle).

In all of these paintings the perspectival effects of the Palazzo Ducale are reduced, and the Doge’s galleon is greatly foreshortened to lessen its visual impact and thus give more prominence to the Bucintoro. The foreground boats are much larger, with incidental detail such as an imminent collision between two gondolas, and it is clear that in this drawing Canaletto simply jotted in a few boats without any thought of their final effect. A few years later Canaletto painted the scene again for Joseph Smith, flattening the perspective a little further and playing down the drama of the foreground boats.

The drawing is freely sketched in pale ink with horizontal and diagonal scribble-hatching. There is a horizon line ruled in pencil, and three vertical lines dividing the sheet exactly into quarters widthways. While these lines do not coincide with any salient features and can hardly have been used to lay out the composition, it does seem likely that the drawing was not made on the spot - bobbing around in a boat on the Bacino - but was constructed in the studio from brief sketches and from memory.

Inscribed in pencil on the verso: Smith

Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005