The Canal dei Marani, Where State Inquisitors Had Them Drowned

1797

Giovanni De Pian, after Francesco Galimberti

Associated Names
Giovanni De Pian

Artist, Italian, 1764 - 1800

Francesco Galimberti

Artist After, Italian, 1755 - 1803

The image shows a scene on the water with two gondolas. In the center, a man is shown from head to toe wearing a light-colored coat, breeches, and shoes, positioned in a standing posture with his hands restrained behind him by another man. This central figure has disheveled hair and a distressed facial expression. The man restraining him wears a turban or headwrap. Beside them, on the left gondola, a third person, seen in profile, is dressed in a uniform with a coat and a large tricorn hat, rowing the gondola with a paddle. On the right gondola, two other men are visible; one is clad in religious attire, an elder with a long beard, and holds a cross in an extended hand, while the other man, cloaked, is grasping a long oar. The background features a dark sky with scattered clouds and a zigzag streak resembling lightning or a comet. The water beneath the gondolas is depicted with movement.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching and aquatint on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    plate: 23.6 × 30.3 cm (9 5/16 × 11 15/16 in.)
    sheet: 28.1 × 35 cm (11 1/16 × 13 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2019.137.5


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(La Portantina di Mattia Jona, Milan); purchased 2019 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2021

  • Aquatint: From Its Origins to Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2021 - 2022.

Bibliography

2021

  • Hoisington, Rena. Aquatint: From Its Origins to Goya. Washington, 2021: 235, fig. 2.

Inscriptions

in plate, below image, at left: Galliberti inv.; in plate, below image, at right: de Pian inc.; in plate, below image, at center: Canale dei Maranni, dove per li fu Inquisitori di Stato si facevano annegare li rei / No. 5; by later hand, lower right in graphite: 582;by later hand, upper left verso in pen and black ink: 5 [in circle]; by later hand, upper right verso in graphite: Pian De Gio; C34

Watermarks

crowned letters


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