Venice, the Piazza S. Marco, looking West from the North end of the Piazzetta, c.1740...

Venice, the Piazza S. Marco, looking West from the North end of the Piazzetta, circa 1740(?). The Campanile on extreme right, rising to the top of the picture. A man stands before the door, within the balustrade, and two men are seated on the bench outside the balustrade, the nearer, in blue, with baskets lying around him. A roofed lean-to stall at the foot of the Campanile with a man in profile and a woman with back turned, making purchases. The Piazza in shadow runs away to the centre distance. Three masked figures and a white dog stand in sunlight against the shadowed pavement. Three other masked figures stand in the foreground towards the right, and in the centre a masked man, pointing with his right hand, stands facing a woman with her back to the spectator, wearing a pink shawl, twenty-one more figures in front, and a white dog. Of these are conspicuous two masked men on extreme left, and nearer the front a girl and a vendor of sweetmeats, both with backs turned. In left background the arcade of the Library, figures in shadow. A blue and gold sign hangs under the right arch and a placard hangs on the corner pier. A man in white perruque looks out of a window on the balcony