Procession of Gondolas in the Bacino di San Marco, Venice

The companion piece to Joli's Ducal Palace courtyard view, this canvas shifts perspective to the Bacino di San Marco, the great waterway at Venice's ceremonial heart. From this vantage point the viewer watches the procession of gondolas arrayed in formal order before the backdrop of Santa Maria della Salute and the Dogana. Joli's expertise in theatrical scene design gave him an instinctive grasp of how to choreograph complex scenes across the picture surface: the gondolas are arranged in echelons that lead the eye toward the distant church, while reflections on the choppy water introduce a silvery shimmer. Together with its courtyard pendant, this work documents a specific Venetian state ceremony with the same documentary ambition as Canaletto's regatta paintings, though Joli's handling is warmer and more loosely painted. Both works are now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Joli renders the Bacino's water with short, horizontal strokes that suggest chop without over-elaboration. The distant architecture is softened atmospherically, while the foreground gondolas are described with more precise, darker contours that anchor the composition.