Of the thirty-five views by Vanvitelli recorded in the inventory of Nicolás Fernández de Córdoba, 10th Duke of Medinaceli, nephew and heir of Luis Francisco de la Cerda y Aragón, who was Viceroy of Naples between 1696 and 1702, five are Venetian views. This must be the one that appears under number 104 described as "Another from St Mark's Square"and valued at 3,000 reals, although it could also be 220, "Venice Square"valued at 2,500 reales. The other views, numbers 251 "City of Venice as seen from the Small Sea", 252 "Another view of Venice" y 303 "City of Venice, small"They must have been smaller works, both because of the reference to "small" in their title and because of their price: 1100 reales for the first and 1200 for the last two.
Venice was one of Vanvitelli's most frequently repeated subjects, as six preparatory drawings and forty views painted from seven different viewpoints have been catalogued. One of the preparatory drawings for this view (G. Briganti, 1996 D 339) must have been made during the painter's trip to northern Italy in 1694-95. With this perspective, in which the quay and the island of San Giorgio were framed between the basilica, the ducal palace, the campanile and the Sansovinian library, Vanvitelli established a model that was to be widely followed by eighteenth-century Venetian Vedutism.