Drawings by the Venetian artist Francesco Tironi, of whom very little is known, are infused by the style of Canaletto. As Charles Beddington has observed, they recall that master's draughtsmanship 'to the point that one wonders if he might have worked in Canaletto's studio' (Venice. Canaletto and his rivals, London 2010, p. 130). A set of 24 engravings by Antonio Sandi showing Views of Islands in the Venetian Lagoon after Tironi was published after 1779. Many of the studies for this series survive and providing secure body of drawings by the artist (see ibid., pp. 130 and 151, note 3). Six further Venetian views by Tironi can be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and in the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York (ibid., p. 151, note 4).

This particularly large sheet shows the Piazza San Marco, Venice decorated for the Festa della Sensa. Taking place on the Sunday after the Ascension of Christ, the feast celebrating the marriage between Venice and the sea is still held today. The temporary buildings shown here were designed by Bernardino Maccaruzzi and were erected for the celebrations in 1776, providing a terminus post quem for the present sheet. The same buildings can be found on a drawing attributed to Giacomo Guardi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 1972.118.254) and on a painting by Francesco Guardi in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. 6223; see A. Morassi, Guardi. I dipinti. Venice, 1984, I, no. 279, II, fig. 308). The buildings that preceded the ones shown here, can be found on two magnificent paintings, also by Francesco, in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (inv. 390 and 387A; see ibid., I, nos. 277 and 278, II, figs., 305-307).