Temporary Tribune in the Campo San Zanipolo, Venice
1782 or after
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 37.5 x 31.5 cm (14 3/4 x 12 3/8 in.) framed: 51.1 x 44.7 cm (20 1/8 x 17 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CIS-B
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Accession Number
1939.1.129
Art Historical Context
Francesco Guardi’s *Temporary Tribune in the Campo San Zanipolo, Venice* captures a fleeting moment in the city’s rich ceremonial life. Painted in oil on canvas after 1782, this modest yet lively work depicts a temporary wooden structure erected in one of Venice’s largest public squares, likely for a papal visit or civic celebration. Guardi, a leading 18th-century Venetian view painter, specialized in such scenes of everyday urban activity, recording the city’s architecture and social rhythms with an atmospheric touch. The small scale of the painting—roughly 15 by 12 inches—invites close view...
About the Artist
Francesco Guardi · 1712–1793
Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (1712–1793) was born into a noble family of painters from Trentino who had settled in Venice. His father, Domenico Guardi, a minor painter trained in Vienna, died in 1716, leaving young Francesco to inherit the family workshop alongside his brothers Giovanni Antonio (Gian Antonio) and Niccolò, both artists, and sister Maria Cecilia, who married the renowned Giovanni Battis...