The Historical Regatta is the most important and spectacular of all the festivals and celebrations held in Venice.

Every year on the first Sunday of September, the city witnesses the parade of typical Venetian boats and a series of races between rowing crews along the Grand Canal.

The procession preceding the challenges of the Historical Regatta recalls the welcome given in 1489 to Caterina Cornaro, wife of the King of Cyprus, who renounced the throne in favor of Venice. The countless 16th-century boats, multicolored and with costumed gondoliers, transport the Doge, the Dogaressa, Caterina Cornaro, and all the highest officials of the Venetian judiciary, in a faithful reconstruction of the glorious past of the most powerful and influential Maritime Republic in the Mediterranean.

The first historical records of this event date back to the mid-13th century and are linked to the Festa delle Marie, but it is likely that in a city always in symbiosis with the sea, the regatta had even older origins, dictated by the need to train crews in oar-handling. Its first painted depiction was by Jacopo de Barbari in 1500. Since then, the regatta has become a favorite theme for landscape painters to depict Venice in a festive atmosphere.

The artist depicts the scene in an architectural context of exceptional beauty, at its most spectacular moment: the procession's passage through St. Mark's Basin, beneath the Doge's Palace.