An architectural capriccio with figures by ruins

This charming capriccio is highly characteristic of Guardi’s work in the genre. Executed with sparkling detail on a small scale, it was likely made for a domestic Venetian audience, as with many capricci. The composition can be compared to a larger work on canvas, of rectangular format, in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, dated to the 1770s, where the arch and figures are similarly positioned. Our picture, however, is finished with greater precision, the light intelligently playing across the architecture. The pleasing device of showing the dome through the arch gives the composition depth and perspective. This, and the Lisbon picture, can be grouped together with a series of architectural capricci that show classical ruins set in landscapes, all of varying sizes and formats (see A. Morassi, Guardi. I dipinti, I, nos. 705-753). Occasionally they are integrated into coastal landscapes, and almost always have figures tending the land in the foreground, as in this fine example.