Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice
A state ceremony on the Molo of Venice, the Doge's Palace and the Piazzetta packed with boats and dignitaries — the setting is unchanged.
Piazzetta San Marco / the Molo, Venice
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice — at a glance
- Artist
- Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768)
- Year
- c. 1727–1745
- Movement
- Venetian view painting (veduta)
- Place
- The Molo and Piazzetta San Marco, Venice, Italy
- Viewpoint
- The ceremonial quay before the Doge's Palace — the buildings and columns are all unchanged
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 181 × 260 cm
- Now at
- Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Overview
This large ceremonial view by Canaletto shows the formal reception of a newly arrived French ambassador on the waterfront of Venice. Gilded state barges (bissone) and crowds of gondolas fill the Bacino before the Molo; the ambassador and Venetian officials process on the quay; the Doge's Palace, the two Piazzetta columns, the Library and the Campanile rise behind. It is oil on canvas, about 181 by 260 cm, and it hangs in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Where was Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice painted?
Scholarship The scene is the Molo — the ceremonial landing-quay in front of the Doge's Palace — and the adjoining Piazzetta San Marco, the gateway between the Bacino and Piazza San Marco. The Doge's Palace, the columns of Saint Mark and Saint Theodore, the Marciana Library, the Campanile and the pavement are all unchanged, so the setting can be matched exactly; only the ceremony, the state barges and the costumes belong to the past.
How we know
- A Canaletto veduta of the real Piazzetta and Molo; 'Grand Canal' is the whole waterway.
What is in the painting?
The Bacino is thick with craft: long, elaborately carved and gilded ceremonial barges rowed by liveried oarsmen, and hundreds of black gondolas. On the Molo, a procession of officials in robes and the ambassador's party moves towards the palace gate. The Doge's Palace fills the background with its pink diaper-patterned upper walls and Gothic arcades; the columns and Campanile stand to the right; a bright sky above.
Look closely
The gilded state barges
Long carved and gilded ceremonial bissone, rowed by liveried oarsmen, among hundreds of gondolas.
The ambassador's procession
Robed Venetian officials and the ambassador's party move along the Molo towards the palace gate.
The Doge's Palace façade
The pink diaper-patterned upper walls and Gothic arcades, drawn arch by arch.
The Piazzetta columns
The two granite columns on the Molo, the ceremonial gateway to the square.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A crowded ceremonial water-and-quay scene set against the exactly rendered façade of the Doge's Palace.
Scholarship Canaletto balances the mass of boats and figures in the foreground against the long, precise architecture behind, using the palace and the columns as a fixed stage. Each barge, robe and arch is drawn with topographic care; the picture is both a record of a diplomatic event and a portrait of the state's front door.
History & provenance
The painting was acquired for the Russian imperial collection in the eighteenth century and is in the Hermitage, St Petersburg.
Sources
- State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg — collection entry for Canaletto, ‘The Reception of the French Ambassador in Venice’
- J. G. Links, ‘Canaletto’ (Phaidon)
Related paintings
The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice
1730
Canaletto's calmer view of the same waterfront, without the ceremony.
View of the Bacino di San Marco from the Punta della Dogana
1743
The whole Molo panorama from across the water.
Reception of the Grand Condé at Versailles
1878
Gérôme's staged reception on the Ambassadors' Staircase at Versailles — the same subject, a French court instead of a Venetian quay.
More by Canaletto
The Stonemason's Yard
The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice
A View of Walton Bridge
View of the Bacino di San Marco from the Punta della Dogana
Also connected to Piazzetta San Marco / the Molo, Venice
