The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a very old lining indeed and equally old stretcher. However it is not the original, as the painted edges on all sides except the base have been slightly folded back by a fraction of an inch. Some areas are no longer attached to the lining, with lumpy or bulging places, and there has clearly been no care taken for some time. Two or three recent knocks have perforated the paint in the middle, a streak of rough darkened old repaint covers an older scrape at upper centre and old crumbled damages can be seen under old repaint along the top edge. There is fairly widespread old overpaint freely daubed across most parts of the sky, leaving glimpses of original in places. Fortunately the city at lower right is quite untouched and completely intact, as are the lovely figures in the foreground. The architectural detail on the left is worn thin in places just beside perfectly preserved areas such as the lower steps. It is hard to tell quite how far the sky has remained unworn beneath the rough amateurish repaint. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
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This unpublished work is entirely characteristic of Marieschi's architectural capricci. Even though the composition appears to be unique in his oeuvre, a number of elements reappear in other works of this type: the device of a sweeping staircase at the left of the composition is often used by Marieschi to give his scene a theatrical effect;¹ the ruined tower and densely packed houses are also recurrent motifs in his capricci. The timelessness of the architecture, in particular the ruined classical temple, is in contrast with the animated figures in the foreground: fishermen haul their nets and washerwomen stand about chatting, adding a lively and contemporary quality to the scene. Marieschi often collaborated with Francesco Simonini, Gian Antonio Guardi and Gaspare Diziani for the figures in his paintings, but here the staffage appears to be entirely his own. Marieschi's capricci are general꧃ly dated to the 1730s and it is likely that this painti꧅ng also dates from the same period.

We are grateful to Ralph Toledano for endorsing the attribution to Marieschi after first-hand i🐼nspection of the painting.

1.  Compare the staircase leading up to a temple in three different capricci by Marieschi, all in private collections; see R. Toledano, Michele Marieschi, Milan 1995, pp. 130-32, cat. nos. C.1.a, 🌄C.1.b, and C.1.c, all reproduced.