The Bucentaur near San Nicolò di Lido

The Bucentaur — Venice's spectacular gilded state barge used for the annual Wedding of the Sea ceremony on Ascension Day — appeared in Guardi's work multiple times across his career, its extraordinary visual presence among the most spectacular of all Venetian ceremonial subjects. This early treatment from around 1750 shows the Bucentaur near the Lido, where the Doge performed the ancient symbolic marriage between Venice and the Adriatic. The historical Bucentaur that Guardi knew had been completed in 1729, a magnificent vessel whose upper deck was entirely encased in gilded carvings and allegorical figures representing Venetian maritime power. It was destroyed by Napoleon's forces in 1798, stripped of its gold and burned, making Guardi's paintings among the most important visual records of its appearance. The ceremony it served was among the most theatrical expressions of the Republic's maritime identity, connecting the city to the sea through an annual ritual of marriage and dominion — but by 1750 the ritual was increasingly a performance of a power the Republic no longer possessed.

The ornate state barge is rendered as a gilded form amid a fleet of smaller vessels. The festive scene captures the pomp of Venetian state ceremony through Guardi's animated, colorful brushwork.