Pope Pius VI blessing the Crowd at Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo, Venice

Pope Pius VI's visit to Venice in 1782 was a major diplomatic and ceremonial event that Guardi documented in a series of paintings recording different episodes of the papal progress through the city. Pius VI (1717–1799) traveled to Venice as part of a diplomatic mission to the Emperor Joseph II in Vienna, stopping in the city for celebrations that included a solemn blessing from a specially constructed loggia in the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Guardi, as Venice's foremost painter of ceremonial events, was commissioned or chose on his own initiative to record these occasions, producing a series of works that function as both artistic and historical document. This Ashmolean painting showing the papal blessing in the great gothic square captures the temporary architecture erected for the occasion alongside the permanent backdrop of the Scuola di San Marco and the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni — one of Verrocchio's masterpieces — that dominated the campo.

Oil on canvas, the portrait demonstrates Francesco Guardi's command of flickering brushwork and spontaneous handling. The careful modeling of the face reveals close study of the sitter's physiognomy, while the treatment of costume and setting projects appropriate social standing.