The Grimani a San Luca Palace was built for the procurator at San Marco, Girolamo Grimani, after a design by the architect Michele Sanmicheli (1484-1559) and is one of the most important palaces facing the Grand Canal. The building was completed later by Gian Giacomo de’ Grigi detto il Bergamasco (1549-1572) who erected a second upper floor based on the forms of the first piano nobile and a massive, atypical cornice. The drawing depicts the three-levelled facade of the palace. The first level has a flight of stairs leading up to the main door. On each side, is a smaller arched door separated by Corinthian columns. A Corinthian entablature surmounted by a balustrade separates the first level from the second. The second level has three arched-doors and two rectangular compartmented doors. The third level is a smaller replica of the second one. A detail of the greek key string course over the Palace’s rusticated base is depicted in the bottom right of the sheet.

After the fall of the Venetian Republic, the owners wanted to pull down the palace, but the Austrian occupiers finally acquired it and installed the post office headquarter. The interior decoration is lost.

The drawing belongs to a set of 66 measured drawings of Italian Renaissance and Ancient Roman architecture which the V&A purchased from Edwin Parsons in 1886. The Parsons set may belong to a larger series of over 700 architectural drawings scattered in English and international collections formerly owned by the British Consul at Venice, Joseph Smith (1682-1770). A proponent of Palladian architecture, Smith began collecting measured drawings of classical and Renaissance architecture from the early 1740s. Today, most of this material exists in a series of bound volumes at the Royal Collection (where the Admiranda Artis Architecturae Varia is kept) and at the British Library (which holds the three-volume Admiranda Urbis Venetae), as well as in loose sheets scattered in collections across Europe and North America including the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

The author of these drawings is unknown. However, their style and subject matter suggests the involvement of the Venetian architect, painter, engraver and theorist Antonio Visentini (1688-1782). A member of the Venetian Academy since its foundation in 1755, Visentini was affiliated with Smith and executed a vast number of architectural drawings for the British Consul as well as for a broader British collector base. Most of these drawings are scaled in English feet and consist of simplified plans and elevations of exemplary Italian architecture. Often produced as a series, the drawings were purchased by British Gentlemen to be included in their libraries and collections. The present drawing forms part of this material. The drawing is not signed by Visentini, but may have been produced by one of Visentini’s workshop members or pupils or by an unknown draughtsman working in the style of Visentini.