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GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED IL CANALETTO (VENICE 1697–1768) – VENICE, THE RETURN OF THE BUCINTORO ON ASCENSION DAY

A masterpiece by Canaletto – Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day – was the top lot at Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London this evening. It made £31,935,000, a world record price for the artist. It was once in the collection of Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister. The sale brought in £55.2 million,  selling 87% by lot and 99% by value.

This breathtaking view of the Feast of Ascension Day has been largely inaccessible to scholars, having appeared at auction only twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993.  Falling on the fortieth day after Easter Sunday, the Feast of the Ascension of Christ was the most spectacular of all Venetian festivals and was frequently commented upon by visitors and travellers who witnessed it. It was on this day exclusively that the Bucintoro, the official galley of the Doge of Venice and a symbol of the Serenissima, was used. The model depicted here, the last to be made at the Arsenale, was designed by Stefano Conti and decorated by the sculptor Antonio Corradini, identifiable by the lion – symbol of the city of Venice – on the prow and the figure of Justice. Accompanied by the city’s officials, the doge would sail out to the Lido on the Bucintoro and cast a ring into the water, a symbolic act representing the marriage of Venice to the sea. It was a ceremony that brought the entire city together and remained a key date in the Venetian calendar until the fall of the Republic in 1797. 

See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 2, 2025.

GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED IL CANALETTO (VENICE 1697–1768)
Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732

Canaletto’s breathtaking view of Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732, will lead Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on July 1 during Classic Week London (estimate in excess of £20 million). Having only appeared at auction twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993, this picture is in a remarkable state of preservation with the surface of the painting beautifully textured and the rich impasto of the figures intact. Inaccessible to scholars throughout much of its history, it has only recently come to light that the picture hung at 10 Downing Street, where it is first recorded in 1736, in the collection of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). This illustrious early 18^th century provenance makes it – along with its pendant of the Grand Canal – the earliest recorded work by the Venetian master to be hung in an English house, predating King George III’s purchase of Consul Joseph Smith’s Canalettos by a quarter of a century.