Category:Solennità dogali by Francesco Guardi

1797 the series was confiscated of the Count de Pestre de Château de Seneffe's collection under the French First Republic. The series was unfortunately broken up: seven remained in the Louvre, one was sent to Brussels, two to Nantes, one (The Doge on the Bucintoro near the Riva di Sant'Elena) to Muséum de Toulouse (now a museum of natural history) and one to Grenoble. The return in 1952 of the Toulouse painting to the Louvre in exchange for a portrait by Ingres and another painting by Guardi, in 1952 has been the first step in an attempt to reassemble the set and display them in a special room. Today ten paintings of the series are exhibited in the Louvre.

This painting and another in the series represent the Festa della Sensa, which took place each year on Ascension Day, the anniversary of the setting out of Doge Pietro II Orseolo's expedition, which achieved the conquest of Dalmatia in c. 1000. In a magnificent state barge, known in fact as the Bucentaur (It. Bucintoro), the Doge visited the Lido and celebrated the marriage of Venice with the Adriatic Sea, by casting a ring into the waters.

The Doge on the Bucentaur at San Niccolò del Lido by Francesco Guardi (c.1766-70)