The Church of the Zitelle on the Giudecca

Art Historical Context

Giacomo Guardi’s delicate drawing captures the Church of Santa Maria della Presentazione—affectionately known as “Le Zitelle”—on Venice’s Giudecca island, viewed across the lagoon. Working in the early nineteenth century, Guardi continued the family tradition established by his father, Francesco Guardi, one of the leading Venetian view painters of the previous. The small sheet records familiar yet quietly poetic aspect of the city: its elegant Baroque façade rising above the water, framed by the everyday traffic of boats that gave Venice its distinctive rhythm. Executed in pen and brown ink with gray wash, the drawing exemplifies the refined draftsmanship prized by collectors of the period. Guardi’s economical lines and subtle tonal washes convey both architectural precision and the soft, luminous atmosphere of the lagoon. Such intimate works were often made as keepsakes for visitors or as preparatory studies, preserving the city’s appearance at a moment when its political fortunes had changed but its visual charm endured. Now in the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the drawing offers modern viewers a direct connection to Venice’s long-standing artistic celebration of place, light, and water.

About the Artist

Giacomo Guardi · 1764–1835

Giacomo Guardi (1764–1835) was a Venetian painter who worked in the long shadow of his celebrated father, Francesco Guardi, one of the greatest vedutisti — view painters — of the eighteenth century. Born into one of Venice's most prominent artistic families, Giacomo received his training directly from his father, absorbing both the technical methods and the characteristic style that had made Franc...