Indian ink drawing of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice seen from the side, from the café along the piazzetta between, on the right, the corner of the Doges’ Palace, and on the left, the entrance to the campanile of St Mark. The bulbs and arches of the Byzantine façade match each other and fully occupy the drawing sheet, seeming to widen towards the sky. The mass of the building imposes itself with the abundance of its roof between the vaulted Renaissance gallery of the Doges’ Palace and the Corinthian columns of the porch of the campanile of Saint Mark’s.

The sketches of a street lamp, a few pigeons and the anonymous silhouettes drawn in the foreground like characters in a speeded up film, illustrate the passage of so many men and women from past centuries to admire the religious heart of the Serenissima.

« No place on earth has given rise, more than Venice, to this conspiracy of enthusiasm. »

Guy de Maupassant, La Vie errante, 1890