The Fire in the San Marcuola Quarter of Venice, 28 November 1789 1789 - 1820

Francesco Guardi captured "The Fire in the San Marcuola Quarter of Venice" with oil on canvas, painting the disaster as it unfolded on November 28, 1789. In late 18th-century Venice, a city renowned for its splendor, conflagrations like this one exposed the precarity of urban life and the stark inequalities within its social fabric. As we gaze upon the chaotic scene, consider how Guardi—from a family of artists but not among the city’s elite—positions the viewer. The gathered crowd, rendered with quick strokes, hints at a cross-section of Venetian society, momentarily united by catastrophe, yet each experiencing it through their own class and circumstance. While the fire itself is a focal point, the emotional weight lies in the human response. What do we make of the artist’s decision to observe such a tragic event? The painting invites us to consider how disasters expose the vulnerabilities of a society, laying bare its fault lines of class, power, and resilience.