Piazza dei Signori, Verona, with the Market Place

Verona was a popular city with Victorian visitors for its architecture and its romantic associations as the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) once described it as the most poetic city in Europe.

This scene is populated with signs and inscriptions. On the left, an engraved notice invites citizens to denounce usurers (money lenders) by posting a note into the lion’s mouth. This ancient sign is still in situ today. Craftsmen’s signs for a shoemaker and a curio seller are given as much prominence as the artist’s signature, which is carved on a paving stone in the playful tradition of Italian artists such as Canaletto (1697-1768). Archways, parapets and windows frame numerous smaller scenes, which become pictures within pictures. These include a woman with a fan, a maid carrying laundry and blazing sunshine in the distant marketplace.

James Holland returned to Verona and the Piazza dei Signori many times over thirty years. This particular painting is only one of numerous sketches, watercolours and oil studies, but The Spectator described it as Holland’s ‘best picture’.

Purchased by Thomas Holloway, 1881.