The Lagoon with Boats, Gondolas, and Rafts 1758

Curator: Look at how Francesco Guardi captures the lagoon life of Venice in "The Lagoon with Boats, Gondolas, and Rafts" from 1758. It’s currently held in a private collection. Editor: It’s evocative; a melancholic sense pervades this Venetian scene, with its murky water and blurred architectural lines. There's almost a haze blanketing the activity. Curator: I see the haziness too. It is true to Guardi’s distinct painterly style; in this oil on canvas piece, he almost obscures class and social strata by depicting all human activity on the water with equal value. What do you make of the artist’s handling of material conditions? Editor: It’s very telling; notice the raw energy with which he uses the oil paint to depict laborers poling rafts—their labour powers these elegant gondolas in their transit between destinations within the city. This economy relies heavily on the work by everyday working men and women! The piece prompts the viewer to recognize the power structures at work within the Rococo-style cityscape itself. Curator: Precisely, and the work sits squarely within debates on value. Guardi situates us, the viewers, in dialogue with the commodification of leisure and the everyday realities of laborers that underpin the facade of the city. Editor: Indeed, by framing gondolas alongside working rafts, the painting asks us to consider what labour looks like when it’s consumed as an aesthetic experience versus a practical activity necessary for subsistence and mobility. The social relations and economies embedded within the painted image, and by implication the Venetian Republic, is built on resource extraction, mobility, and accessibility through human-powered resources. Curator: Guardi leaves us with questions that challenge the picturesque. How are individual agency, economic class, and cultural identity navigated when daily living is a visual experience curated and packaged for foreign elites? Editor: Absolutely, this hazy cityscape reveals just how blurry those class and economic distinctions can be! Curator: I agree, it’s far more politically insightful than its delicate aesthetic first suggests. Editor: For sure, artmaking here serves as the aesthetic device through which to view the social operations and machinations of power as embodied within this Rococo era vista.