Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 9 May 1927, lot 134, for £58 16s. where bought by Fleischman (as 'Canaletto');
Thence by descent to his niece until sold ("The Property of a Lady"), London, Sotheby's, 13 December 2001, lot 84, for £828,000, where acquired by the present owner.

London, Richard Green, The Grand Tour. Visions of Italy, 3-22 December 2007, no. 6. 

R. Toledano, Antonio Joli, Turin 2006, p. 203, cat. no. V.VIII, reproduced p. 57, plate XXII.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is remarkably well preserved. It has a recent lining and a strong, rather older, stretcher. There are no damages at all, and an even, stable surface throughout, with slightly more fine curving eighteenth century craquelure in the lower half. The light ground has a slight vertical grain and the gentle tone and temperate brushwork is consistent and perfectly controlled overall. There are pentimenti faintly visible of alterations in the spacing of the windows on the Doge's Palace. The figures were characteristically added when the scenery had been fully completed, and it is possible to see the architecture running through them in places where they have grown more transparent naturally over time. Some of the figures are also slightly thin, and occasionally the delicate rigging on the ships on the left is a trifle faint. There is one little retouching in the paving beneath the group of figures by the side entrance to San Marco, but otherwise just a sprinkling of minute cosmetic touches in the sky, including two or three narrow retouched lines of slightly wider craquelure near the side edges. However these are marginal imperfections in an exceptionally intact painting. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Although born in Modena, Joli would spend most of his life travelling around Italy and even further afield to Germany, Spain and to England, where he would gain a fine reputation as a scenografo (set-designer) and vedutista (view-painter).  As a young man he travelled to Rome, where he studied the vedute and capricci of Giovanni Paolo Panini, under whom he almost certainly trained, and of Gaspar van Wittel.  By 1718 he must have established himself in that city for he was granted the important commission to decorate the Villa Patrizi in Rome, and by 20 April 1719 he had become a member of the Accademia di San Luca.  He is first documented in Venice in the Spring of 1732 and here, once again, he would study and assimilate the style of the leading vedutisti, namely Canaletto, Marieschi and Carlevarijs: indeed Joli would come to be called 'il Canaletto napoletano'.  He would establish his fame in Venice through designing sets for both theatrical and musical performances in Venice and nearby cities such as Padua, Modena and Reggio Emilia.  He clearly became a successful scenographer - he was particularly admired by Carlo Goldoni - and part of his role would almost certainly have involved decorating boats and stands for the feste, of which there were many in Venice.  These feste would have been attended by Venetians and tourists alike, and this would certainly have helped enhance his reputation and encourage commissions for easel paintings.  Although no dated paintings are known from the 1730s, one must assume that he executed numerous views of Venice during this time, and some have been convincingly dated to this period; see, for example, the signed View of the Entrance to the Giudecca with the Punta della Dugana, sold London, Sotheby's, 6 July 1988, lot 54.¹  He continued to paint views of the city after he had left, an example being a version of the ex Sotheby's picture cited above, signed: Mr. Joll;/Fecit and inscribed with the names of Joesph Heidegger and his daughter,² which must have been painted after the artist's arrival in England in 1744.  There is no reason to presume, however, that the present picture was painted after Joli's departure from Venice and it may be compared with The Bacino di San Marco with the visit of the Papal  Ambassador, Giovanni Francesco Stopani, 17 April 1741, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.³  in which the buildings at the centre of the compostion are seen from a very similar angle.  A similar date of execution, in the early 1740s seems plausible.  It must certianly have been painted before the artist's second (intermitte♓nt) stay in Venice during ཧthe second half of the 1750s as the wings of the clock tower in The Piazza San Marco lack the top storey, which was constructed in 1755.

We are grateful for Charles Beddington for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.


1. R. Middione, Anotnio Joli, Soncino 1995, p. 68, reproduced.
2. Sold London, Sotheby's, 17 April 1996, lot 628; M. Manzelli, Antonio Joli: opera pittorica, Venice 1999, p. 101, no. V.9, reproduced colour plate XXXVIII.
3. Manzelli, op.cit., p.99, no. VI., colour plate XXXIV.