The Bacino di San Marco, Venice, looking west with the Doge's Palace, the entrance to the Grand Canal and Santa Maria della Salute beyond

Having trained in Modena, Antonio Joli worked for a period in Rome for a member of the Galli-Bibiena family and in that of Giovanni Paolo Panini. After visits to Modena and Perugia, he sojourned in Venice in 1736 when he came into contact with Canaletto. Although he settled in Naples, Joli travelled extensively through Europe and is recorded several times in Venice where he married in 1740. In 1742 he is recorded working with Giuseppe Bibbiena on a theatre design, in 1754 he visited the city again on his return from Spain. Two years later he was nominated a founder-member of the Venetian Academy.

The style of this picture indicates that the picture was painted during one of the visits of Joli in Venice during the 1740s. A closely related picture is recorded R. Middione (Antonio Joli, Soncino, 1995, fig. 31).