An architectural capriccio with a ruined aqueduct and a church beyond, perhaps that of Sant' Elena

Working in the vedutista tradition of Canaletto and Francesco Guardi, Tironi is best known for his prints of Venice and her outlying islands, which were collected in print form in Ventiquattro Prospettive delle Isole della Laguna di Venezia. It is not clear exactly when he was working on the compositions for this publication, although it was probably after 1779 (see T. Pignatti, 'Per i disegni di Francesco Tironi (c.1745-1797', in Studi in onore di Giulio Carlo Argan, Rome, 1984, p. 376). The building seen through the arches of the aqueduct in the present drawing is similar, with its campanile and dome, to the Church of Sant' Elena, represented by Tironi in another drawing whose current location is unknown (Pignatti, op. cit., fig. 20). Although the present drawing is not dated, it was probably executed around 1780, like the other works presented to Kunhans, and is an important addition to the known corpus of drawings by Tironi, of which only 25 were listed by Pignatti.