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This work is one of a series of twelve pictures representing the 'Solenità dogali', in which the artist has faithfully copied the scenes drawn by Canaletto and engraved by Giambattista Brustolon to commemorate the festivities at the coronation of the Doge Alviso IV Mocenigo, in 1763. This has led to some confusion, and the canvases were formerly attributed to Canaletto, though their style was quite unmistakably that of Guardi. One of the pictures, bears the arms of Alviso IV Mocenigo.
Two pictures in the series represent the Feast of the Bucentaur, the most sumptuous of all the Venetian festivals. It took place each year on Ascension Day, the anniversary of the setting out of Doge Pietro Orsolo's expedition, which had achieved the conquest of Dalmatia in about AD 1000. In a magnificent state barge, known as the Bucentaur, the Doge visited the Lido and celebrated the marriage of Venice with the Adriatic, by casting a ring into the sea. The canvas shows the Bucentaur leaving Venice; another in the series (in the Louvre) represents the Doge going to hear Mass at San Niccolò del Lido. Another picture, in the Museum of Copenhagen, depicts the return of the Bucentaur to Venice.
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