Attributed to Joseph Heintz II (Augsburg c. 1600-1678 Venice)

This painting can be compared with the signed canvas of The Fish Market, signed and dated 'Joseph Heintius 165...' (R. Bloch collection, Rome; see La Natura Morta Italiana, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Palazzo Reale, 1964-5, p. 111, no. 259, fig. 118b). Heintz was apprenticed to his stepfather, Matthäus Gundelach, in Augsburg, before establishing himself in Venice. He spent periods in Rome in the 1630s and 1640s, and in circa 1644 was made a Knight of the Golden Spur by Pope Urban VIII. Heintz executed a number of religious works for churches in Venice and its dominions. However, his real contribution lay in his depictions of the city's festivities and state ceremonies, which were even to have an influence on Canaletto, for example his Piazza San Marco (after 1640; Rome, Galleria Doria-Pamphili).