History Walks in Venice

Il Gran Teatro di Venezia — plate 48 — Veduta della Fondamenta della Croce di Venetia

Domenico Lovisa -- Il Gran Teatro di Venezia -- plate 48 -- Veduta della Fondamenta della Croce dì Venezia

Veduta della Fondamenta della Croce di Venetia is an engraving from Il Gran teatro di Venezia, published by Domenico Lovisa, c. 1715, in Venice.

It depicts a series of traffic incidents, involving transport boats and gondolas, with altercations between the rowers.

Veduta della Fondamenta della Croce di Venetia

Domenico Lovisa -- Il Gran Teatro di Venezia -- plate 48 -- Veduta della Fondamenta della Croce dì Venezia
Domenico Lovisa — Il Gran Teatro di Venezia — plate 48 — Veduta della Fondamenta della Croce dì Venetia

Legend

  1. Chiesa di Santa Croce di Venetia Moniche Franciscane
  2. Chiesa e Conuento de P.P. Teatrini

Location

The engraving is a view across the Grand Canal of the Fondamenta Santa Croce, as seen from in front of the (now demolished) Chiesa di Corpus Domini.

The angle of view drawn as a pie slice chart on top of a map of Venice from 1729
The view on the map of Lodovico Ughi (1729)
The angle of view drawn as a pie slice chart on top of an OpenStreetMap map
The view on a contemporary map

Partially in view on the right is the Chiesa di Santa Croce (A), which has given the name to the Sestiere Santa Croce. The church existed in 774 when the first bishop of Venice consecrated it. The church buildings depicted were from the late 1500s. The church was closed in 1810, and after a short period as a warehouse, demolished.

Down the canal on the other side, the Chiesa di San Nicolò dei Tolentini (B) with the associated monastery can be seen.

Events or actions

The scarcity of major monuments in this veduta gives the impression that the message was maybe something else.

In fact, looking at the boats in the canals, we see scenes of traffic accidents and acts of road rage.

The same monochrome print from the 1700s, with a circular area enlarged and emphasised. The area is of three workboats in the middle of the canal. They have crashed into each other, there's a man in the water, and two men from different boats have their oars raised high in the air, as they're about to strike each other.
Two workboats have crashed and the rowers fighting with their oars.
The same monochrome print from the 1700s, with a circular area enlarged and emphasised. The focused area is in the lower right, where two gondolas have crashed, one ramming the other. There's a man in the water swimming away, probably from the boat hit, while the other rower from that same boat is using his oar like a spear to knock over a man who's in the other boat.
A gondola has hit another, whose rower counterattacks with the oar.

The illustrations come from a Venetian Stories newsletters on this print.

Venetian Stories

  • Road rage with many more details about the traffic scenes.

Sources

Bibliography

  • Lovisa, Domenico. Il Gran teatro di Venezia ovvero descrizzione esatta di cento delle più insigni prospettive, e di altretante celebri pitture della medesima città, il tutto disegnato, e intagliato eccelentemente da periti artefici, con la narrazione della fondazione delle chiese, monasteri, spedali, isolette, e altri luoghi sì pubblici, come privati. Venezia per Domenico Lovisa sotto i portici a Rialto, 1715. [more] 🔗
  • Tassini, Giuseppe. Edifici di Venezia distrutti o volti ad uso diverso da quello a cui furono in origine destinati. Venezia G. Cecchini, 1885. 🔗
  • Tassini, Giuseppe. Curiosità Veneziane ovvero Origini delle denominazioni stradali di Venezia. 1863. [more] 🔗

Localities

Today

A modern photo of the same scene as in the 1700s print, where little has changed, but the church buildings in the background are gone, and replaced by a garden behind a brick wall.
The view today from Google Street View

René Seindal

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