The Scala dei Giganti, Palazzo Ducale, Venice

Following a period of local training in Alexandria, Giovanni Migliara moved to Milan, where he specialized in painting vedute and stage-sets for the Teatro Carcano and La Scala, under the tutelage of the designer and Vedutista Gasparo Galiari. The transferral of his interest to smaller scale works after 1810 was largely as a result of illness. Remaining aloof from the predominant neoclassical trend amongst Milanese artists at this time, Migliara often drew instead on medieval and historical subjects with romantic overtones, or, as in the present work, favored topographically precise pictures in which he could display his skill honed as a scene painter. The unusual composition depicts the staircase in the Ducal Palace, Venice with Jacopo Sansovino's statues of Mars and Neptune flanking its descent. the building at the rear of the painting is the Cortiletto dei Senatori.