J.M.W.Turner: In Venice

Venice Grand Canal By Turner

This is one of Turner’s most beautiful, but at the same time least imaginative, views of Venice. He has given us the full view of the broad breast of the Canal, filled with gondolas and shipping. On the right is the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, with its grand flight of steps. and beyond these the Custom House; in the distance is a forest of masts; and, on left, beyond a line of Palaces, the bell-tower of St. Mark and the Doge’s Palace.. In other •pictures of Venice Turner has represented more of the beauty of its architecture, has invested it with a greater charm of dreamy poetry; here he seems to have meant to paint principally the Canal, the highway of commerce and gaiety—the human work-a-day Venice, full of business and pleasure, unglorified by any beauty but that of its sun and water. Most prominent of all things, placed at such an angle as to display most characteristically its peculiar shape, is the black gondola, with its sharp, curved ends and solitary oarsman; in the centre is a displaying gaily-coloured flags upon its sailless mast; in the distance the busy Custom House and the glories of St. Mark’s Square; but all things buildings, shipping. flags, and sailors, even the sky itself—contribute to the glory of the all-reflecting Canal.