View of the Casino Rustico at the villa of Conte Giacomo Durazzo at Mestre

Giovanni David was in Venice for two years between 1774 and 1776, where he lodged with Count Giacomo Durazzo, but he probably returned to the city in 1780 when he provided frontispieces for Venetian publications. The present drawing is a joint gift, inscribed by both artist and patron. Giacomo Durazzo, who served as Imperial Ambassador to Venice during this period, spent the early years of the 1770s laying out extensive gardens around his villa at Mestre, where he would retire from the political obligations of his official residence at Ca' Loredano on the Grand Canal. Here at Mestre Durazzo gathered his circle of friends, who included writers, scientists, artists and connoisseurs, among whom Künhans and Strange were presumably numbered. Although no 'casino rustico' is specifically named on the surviving plans of the villa, the present drawing may represent the 'Casino del Caffé', where Durazzo and his guests would take final refreshments together before the visitors set off from the landing stage back towards Venice (see A.F. Ivaldi, 'La villa di Mestre del conte Giacomo Durazzo e il soggiorno veneziano del pittore Giovanni David (1774-1776)', in Da Tintoretto a Rubens, exhib. cat., Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, 2004). David also executed an etching of the villa, showing the water-stairs and the entrance from the canal (M. Newcome-Schleier and G. Grasso, Giovanni David: Pittore e incisore della famiglia Durazzo, Turin, 2003, no. 153).