San Giorgio Maggiore

Description

"This composition represents the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, surrounded by a multitude of galleons, gondolas and other types of shipping. The church was designed in 1566 by Andrea Palladio and completed in 1610. The bell tower built on a square plan and terminating with a spire is represented according to its form prior to being redesigned in 1727. The foreground is animated by the sumptuous gondola d’oro (golden gondola) of a foreign ambassador with gondoliers dressed in red livery. In the foreground there are elegantly described figures of local dignitaries in their black robes, oriental merchants and porters.

The present painting is characterised by the lively rendering of atmosphere, its clarity of colour and brilliance of palette, in the striated sky. Echoes of Eismann’s depiction of atmosphere occasionally reoccur even in twentieth century painting as can be seen in the Venetian views of Giorgio De Chirico."