The Molo with the Ducal Palace

The painting affords a view of the Serenissima’s most characteristic quay: the Molo, with the columns of San Marco and San Todaro (or Teodoro) framing the entrance to the city. On the left stands the Ducal Palace, rendered in minute detail. The steep perspective in which the building is captured continues into the background along the Riva degli Schiavoni. Cast in contrasting light and truncated by the upper border of the image, the column of San Todaro dominates the scene. Between it and the column of San Marco the mast of a schooner appears in the background; it marks the central axis of the composition. Together with the large schooner on the right, the column of San Todaro to some extent counterbalances the buildings which occupy the left side. There is much activity both on the water and in the Square, where most of the figures are gathered in small groups.

This view of the Molo and the Ducal Palace towards the east is highly unusual. Instead of depicting the Palace frontally, Carlevaris turned a quarter circle so that we look down the fa�ade of the building towards the Riva degli Schiavoni, a composition he also used in four later works. The vantage-point in all these works is from the loggia of the Library, directly opposite the Ducal Palace.

Although the architecture dominates the composition, the artist paid close attention to the human figures. Drawn or painted studies for several of the macchiette have survived. Scenes of people and situations drawn from everyday life were introduced to Italy in the first half of the seventeenth century by Dutch painters active in Rome. In the course of the century the so-called Bamboccianti cast such everyday scenes with growing frequency against a — sometimes identifiable — urban background. One of these painters was Johannes Lingelbach, whose work seems to have inspired Carlevaris’s vedute. The Venetian artist is thought to have spent some time in Rome, where he could have become familiar with Lingelbach’s work.

Carlevaris’s town views are also deeply rooted in the Venetian tradition of depicting historic or festive events. His View of the Molo with the Ducal Palace, however, does not document a procession, reception or other festivity; rather, it subordinates the human figures to a portrayal of one part of the city in meticulous, topographically correct detail from an unorthodox point of view.