[water flowing]
[cannon salute]
Female Narrator: Two successive versions of the Venetian government’s grand two-story ceremonial boat, called the Bucintoro, appear in these paintings. The vessel was the focal point of a symbolic wedding between the city and the Adriatic Sea that took place every year on Ascension Day. Carlevarjis’ painting, at left, drops us right into the middle of a throng of boats. You can almost smell the smoke of a cannon salute that’s just been fired from the ship on the left.
A contemporary observer, Edward Wright, describes the vessel.
[stately classical music]
Male Actor with English Accent: “The Bucentaur has forty-two Oars, four Men to an Oar; there is a Seat at the upper end for the Doge, others on each side for the Council of Ten: below is a double Row of Benches for the Senate. On the Outside there is a Border or Frieze of pretty good Basso-Relievo that goes round it.”
Female Narrator: By “basso-relievo,” Wright is referring to the splendid decoration carved in low relief, all around the boat.
The other painting, made by Canaletto 35 years later, shows a more serene rendition of the festival, with calm water and an unobstructed view of the pink-hued Doge’s Palace. At the building’s left corner, the Doge and senators walk in procession toward the gilded Bucintoro.
[music ends]
