Ruins and Bridge

It’s a beautiful day in, and the locals quietly enjoy it. The ruins of grand buildings from the past suggest an industry that no longer appears to be of much interest. There was a ready demand for such scenes in in and around Venice, where Giuseppe Zais painted and drew from about 1725-30 until his death in 1781. Though Zais may have sketched ruins and bridges that he saw in the countryside, here and in many other compositions, he seems to combine his memories of different places to create new fantasy locations, known as capricci (caprices), in which the artist presents theater of the imagination.