This drawing comes from an album of about sixty drawings formerly in the Morosini-Gatterburg Collection, Venice, of events and ceremonies in the history of Venice, which was broken up and dispersed at the beginning of this century, A. Morassi, op. cit., 1984, nos. 61-119, illustrated. A number of the drawings are reinterpretations of paintings of Venetian history in the Palazzo Ducale. The identity of the patron of the album is unknown, although Morassi notes that Guardi was employed by Johan Matthias von der Schulenburg to make copies of notable Venetian pictures, and the project may have grown out of this commission.

Morassi suggests that the subject of this drawing may be an Imperial marriage celebrated by a Pope