The Fire at San Marcuola

The artwork

The sky of Venice has turned into a grey cloud of smoke, and on the bank a dark crowd watches the houses burn. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The grey of the smoke filling the sky, the white of the houses, the dark figures of the crowd.
• A dramatic, modern picture that gives character to a study or a library.
• A gift for anyone who loves Venice and the true stories behind paintings.

In 1789 a fire broke out in the oil warehouses of the San Marcuola quarter in Cannaregio, the district north of the Grand Canal, and devastated part of the quarter. Francesco Guardi (1712-1793), the painter who more than anyone captured the light and air of Venice, was then seventy-seven, and he painted it as a reporter would have told it: not a picture-postcard view, but something that really happened.

The fire itself is barely visible. What we see are its consequences: the smoke rising and covering the sky, the blackened houses, the people who stop to watch in silence. Guardi paints everything with quick, almost sketched touches, and that is exactly why the scene feels taken from life. The original is in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

In a study or a library it tells of a different Venice from the one of the festivals. A rare gift for anyone who loves history and painting.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass