A Fortune Teller at Venice
In Venice during the 1750’s showmen and quacks would erect booths at the foot of the Doge’s Palace, under the lower outside arcade, usually at a carnival. In this painting, a woman gets her palm read, as some onlookers stand by, and a man wearing a mask stands behind her. An interesting note, almost half of the men in Longhi’s genre paintings were outfitted with the same Venetian carnival masks. This painting also includes two inscriptions, one relating to the Doge Francesco Loredan (1685-1762), who was the Doge at the time of the painting, and the other relating to a vacancy for the parish priest.
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