Exhibited in 1840 with the following lines from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

I stood upon a bridge, a palace and

A prison on each hand.

The quotation shows that Turner saw even the beauties of Venice as a sham, concealing the grim realities on which her now departed glories had depended.

This is an unusually close-up, architectural view, matched only by the vast unfinished picture of the Rialto of c. 1820 mentioned under No.236.

Most of the critics of the 1840 Academy exhibitions were so shattered by Turner's other contributions that they failed to mention the two Venetian scenes, this picture and the 'Venice from the Canale della Giudecca, Chiesa di S Maria della Salute, &c' (Victoria and Albert Museum). Even the Spectator, which did notice them, could not forbear to include them in the general condemnation: all were 'mere freaks of chromomania', the Venetian pictures being included with their 'sundry patches of white and nankeen, with a bundle of gayer colours, . . . intended to represent buildings and vessels.'