The Doge's Palace and Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice

Antonio Canaletto (Venice 1697 – Venice 1768) . Oil painting on canvas, The Doge's Palace and Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, by Canaletto (Venice 1697 – Venice 1768), 1730. Painted for Samuel Hill (Samuel Egerton's uncle) in 1730. A view looking eastward along the Riva degli Schiavoni; the column of Saint Mark is at the left and the Ponte della Paglia is visible between the Doge's Palace and the Prisons. Further along is the high, uncompleted façade of the church of the Pietà, and beyond that are the dome and campanile of San Pietro di Castello. The huddle of small wood and plaster buildings beyond the Prisons has an interesting history. After the murder of Doge Vitale Michiel in 1172 it was decreed that the assassin's house on the Riva should be razed to the ground and that no stone building should ever be constructed on the site. "Only in 1948", writes John Julius Norwich (1977), "were the authorities at last persuaded to set the old tradition aside; and even now, as we glance up at the façade of the Danieli Royal Excelsior Hotel, some of us may wonder whether, in a slightly different and even more disagreeable form, the old curse does not linger still over the spot where Vitale Michiel met his death eight centuries ago." This and TAT/P/40 must be the two paintings by Canaletto referred to by Joseph Smith and Samuel Egerton in letters written to Samuel Hill from Venice in 1730. They were completed by the end of December and despatched to London in February 1731. Samuel Hill, who was in the habit of buying pictures through Consul Smith, was uncle and guardian to Samuel Egerton and it was through him that his nephew was apprenticed to Smith in 1729. Samuel Egerton outlived his elder brother, inheriting his uncle’s estates, and the pictures were transferred to the family seat of Tatton Park. Tatton Park, Cheshire (Accredited Museum)