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The buildings on the Grand Canal near Santa Lucia, on the left, and the church of the Discalced Carmelites, the Scalzi, to the right of centre, cover almost the entire width of the scene. The Grand Canal narrows near the entrance to the Rio dell'Isola, the present-day Lista di Spagna. As a figure-head the still extant house stands at the junction of the two waterways. Beside it stands the large Palazzo Calbo-Grotta, where the Grand Canal curves out of view toward the east. The painter observed these buildings from the Fondamenta di San Simeone, from an elevated vantage point looking down on the quay. The tall side wall on the right obstructs the view of nearby San Simeone Piccolo. There are gondolas scattered over the water, and also moored to the quays here and there. Guardi studied them carefully, as becomes apparent from a pen and wash drawing that corresponds with the canvas precisely.
Santa Lucia as well as the Lion and Rezzonico Palaces adjacent to it were demolished in about 1860 to make way for the present railroad station. In front of the Scalzi, which narrowly escaped the same fate, a permanent bridge over the Grand Canal was built.
Together with its companion (also in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), the painting affords a complete picture of the buildings along the Grand Canal at the level of Santa Lucia and San Simeone Piccolo, one of the loveliest parts of Venice at the time and frequently chosen by Guardi as the subject for his paintings. The late style of Francesco Guardi, characterized by a light, almost transparent tonality with blonde shades, is superbly exemplified by these paintings. The compositions of two views Guardi painted of Santa Lucia and San Simeone Piccolo, now in the Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna, are virtually identical.
The painter who introduced this part of Venice in topographical painting was Canaletto. Following his example Antonio Visentini made an etching for the series Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum, published in 1735 and 1742. Canaletto included both sides of the canal in the scene and he chose a more distant standpoint in the bend of the canal near the Fondamenta della Croce.
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