This drawing depicts St Mark’s Basin and the Ducal Palace from a viewpoint that was probably on the island of San Giorgio or nearby. Francesco Guardi employs great visual synthesis, focusing our attention on the boats in the foreground that cast trembling shadows on the surface of the water, while a few pen strokes outline the Ducal Palace, Riva degli Schiavoni and the bell tower of St Mark’s, rendered almost like distant mirages. 

Views of the Ducal Palace from San Giorgio are quite rare in Guardi’s graphic production, with the exception of a sheet conserved at the National Gallery in Ottawa.¹ However, the drawing in question presents a broader, almost wide-angle vision of Riva degli Schiavoni, while the large boats in the foreground are absent. In this drawing, the decision to feature some boats in the foreground helps to create a great impression of depth. What is more, in the Canadian drawing, the presence of some notes on the colour suggest that it was probably a preparatory drawing for a painting. There is nothing to suggest that the Cerruti drawing was produced for this purpose. Instead, everything - size, summary lines - leads us to believe that it was a quicker drawing, perhaps sketched out rapidly in an album of various studies. The format of the sheet and the type of paper are also more compatible with a sketchbook than a jotter full of solutions for the artist to use in his studio. 

As regards the possible date of the drawing, despite the difficulty of dating this kind of study with no connection to specific works, it seems likely that it was produced in around the 1770s, if we consider the work as one produced during the artist’s maturity. 

Denis Ton 

¹ See Morassi 1984, p. 139, cat. 343.