Visit of the Doge to San Zaccaria on Easter Day

Art Historical Context

This striking print captures a grand Venetian ceremony: the Doge’s official Easter visit to the Church of San Zaccaria. Created between 1763 and 1766 by Giovanni Battista Brustolon after an original design by Canaletto, the image records the colorful procession of officials, clergy, and citizens moving through the city’s sunlit squares. Canaletto’s celebrated vedute style—precise architectural views that blend topographical accuracy with atmospheric light—remains clearly visible even in this reproductive format. Brustolon translated the painted scene into etching and engraving on laid paper, techniques that allowed fine detail and tonal richness to reach a wider audience. Measuring roughly 44 by 56.5 centimeters within the plate, the print preserves the sweeping perspective and lively figures typical of eighteenth-century Venetian art while making the spectacle available beyond the walls of private palaces. Today in the National Gallery of Art’s Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection, the work offers modern viewers an intimate glimpse of Venice’s civic rituals and the enduring appeal of Canaletto’s cityscapes.