Capriccio with the Arcade of the Doge's Palace and San Giorgio Maggiore

This Wallace Collection capriccio from 1785 incorporates the arcade of the Doge's Palace — the famous Gothic lower loggia of pointed arches on the Piazzetta and Molo facades — with a view through to San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino, combining a recognizable architectural element with atmospheric lagoon landscape in a characteristically late synthesis of real and imagined. The Doge's Palace arcade, with its distinctive pattern of pointed arches on pink Verona marble columns below and white Istrian stone above, was one of the most instantly recognizable architectural elements in Venice; its inclusion immediately anchored the invented scene in a recognizably Venetian context. By 1785, Guardi was seventy-three and his capriccio production was becoming increasingly atmospheric and personally expressive, the invented scenes functioning as vehicles for pure pictorial meditation rather than marketable topographic fantasy. The Wallace Collection holds this late capriccio alongside his earlier 1785 Torre dell'Orologio capriccio, together documenting his final decade of capriccio production.

The painting reveals Francesco Guardi's spontaneous handling and keen understanding of animal anatomy and movement. The naturalistic rendering of form and texture demonstrates careful study from life, while flickering brushwork lends the image its distinctive vitality.