Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-parkes-bonington-41" aria-label="More by Richard Parkes Bonington" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Richard Parkes Bonington</a>
Venice Ducal Palace with a Religious Procession
Presented by Frederick John Nettlefold 1947
adults
architecture
boat, barge
boat, sailing
canal
church
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
clergyman
column
countries and continents
crowd
custom house
groups
industrial
Italy
man
monuments
palace
people
places
procession
public and municipal
religion and belief
religious
religious
residential
society
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
universal religious imagery
Venice, Dogana
Venice, Doge’s Palace
Venice, Santa Maria della Salute
waterfront
work and occupations
<p>This ambitious painting depicts a view along the Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice. The imposing building of the Doge’s palace is on the right. A religious procession enters the foreground from St Mark’s Square, behind the palace. into the foreground. Bonington only visited Venice once, in spring 1826, but the city made a lasting impression on him. He made numerous sketches from life while there, which he drew upon for later pictures. This is Bonington’s largest known work, and he exhibited it in 1828 to much acclaim. One critic praised it as ‘uniquely Venetian’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2021</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
9 October 2003 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
9 October 2003 – 11 January 2004
2004-01-11
2003-10-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
15 February 2004 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
2004-02-15
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
2003-10-09
Turner and Venice
Exhibition
21 November 2012 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
17 November 2012
2012-11-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-21
Gallery 10
Collection based display
Venice: Ducal Palace with a Religious Procession
support: 1143 × 1626 mm
Presented by Frederick John Nettlefold 1947
<p>Bonington visited Venice only once, in the spring of 1826, but it had a huge impact on his work.  He travelled there via Paris, Milan and Verona, arriving in the city by mid April and remaining for about a month.  During his stay he made innumerable <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> and oil sketches on the spot, some of which formed the basis of later works in oil and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a>.  

</p><p>Bonington made several sketches of the architecture of the Doge's Palace from the Riva degli Schiavoni.  This picture appears to have been the culminating version of several related works, including an initial pencil study (private collection), a watercolour (Wallace Collection), which focuses on the disposition of light and dark masses within the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>, and an oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> (Louvre) which is an elaboration of the watercolour.

</p><p>This is the largest known work by Bonington.  The view stretches from the Dogana and the church of Santa Maria della Salute in the far-left distance to the prison in the right foreground.  Bonington purposely enlarged the foreground, not only to include the religious precession, but to create a composition that relates to the Venetian <i>vedute</i> tradition of painting <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> views or panoramas. He stresses the vanishing point through the sharply <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/foreshortening" title="Glossary definition for 'Foreshortening'"><span>foreshortened</span></a> barge, the quayside pavement and the market stall, and these are balanced by the receding <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a> of the Palace.  Some of the figures appear to have been based on individual studies.  For example, the young woman in a wide-brimmed hat, seated in the foreground, is adapted from an earlier sketch of a Swiss girl from Meyringen (1826, Calne, Wiltshire, Bowood House).

</p><p>The picture was exhibited, along with <i>View of the Piazzetta near the Square of St Mark, Venice </i>(Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonington-view-of-the-piazzetta-near-the-square-of-st-mark-venice-n00374" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00374</span></a>), at the British Institution in 1828 and received enthusiastic reviews. It was praised by <i>London Weekly Review</i>, whose critic regarded its 'deep blue sky, the gloomy Palladian architecture and the scenic groups of the characteristic figures in the foreground' as 'uniquely Venetian' (<i>London Weekly Review</i>, 23 February 1828). The <i>Literary Gazette</i> considered that Bonington's execution was 'masterly' and noted that 'if it possessed a little more sunniness of effect, this fine picture might challenge comparison with the finest of Canaletti's works' (<i>Literary Gazette</i>, 9 February 1828). 

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Malcolm Cormack, <i>Bonington</i>, London 1989, p.128, reproduced p.129.<br/>Patrick Noon, <i>Richard Parkes Bonington 'On the Pleasure of Painiting'</i>, exhibition catalogue, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven and London 1991, pp.72-4.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000<br/></p>
Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This ambitious painting depicts a view along the Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice. The imposing building of the Doge’s palace is on the right.  A religious procession enters the foreground from St Mark’s Square, behind the palace.  into the foreground. Bonington only visited Venice once, in spring 1826, but the city made a lasting impression on him. He made numerous sketches from life while there, which he drew upon for later pictures. This is Bonington’s largest known work, and he exhibited it in 1828 to much acclaim. One critic praised it as ‘uniquely Venetian’. </p>
</div>

Display caption
2021-11-09T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
adults architecture boat, barge boat, sailing canal church cities, towns, villages (non-UK) clergyman column countries and continents crowd custom house groups industrial Italy man monuments palace people places procession public and municipal religion and belief religious religious residential society townscapes / man-made features transport: water universal religious imagery Venice, Dogana Venice, Doge’s Palace Venice, Santa Maria della Salute waterfront work and occupations