Francesco Guardi in the context of Marriage of the Sea

The bucentaur (/bjuːˈsɛntɔːr/ bew-SEN-tor; bucintoro in Italian and Venetian) was the ceremonial barge of the doges of Venice. It was used every year on Ascension Day (Festa della Sensa) up to 1798 to take the doge out to the Adriatic Sea to perform the "Marriage of the Sea" – a ceremony that symbolically wedded Venice to the sea.

Scholars believe there were four major barges, the first significant bucentaur having been built in 1311. The last and most magnificent of the historic bucentaurs made its maiden voyage in 1729 in the reign of Doge Alvise III Sebastiano Mocenigo. Depicted in paintings by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi, the ship was 35 m (115 ft) long and more than 8 metres (26 ft) high. A two-deck floating palace, its main salon had a seating capacity of 90. The doge's throne was in the stern, and the prow bore a figurehead representing Justice with sword and scales. The barge was propelled by 168 oarsmen, and another 40 sailors were required to man it.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (/tiˈɛpəloʊ/ tee-EP-ə-loh, Italian: [dʒoˈvanni batˈtista ˈtjɛːpolo, ˈtjeː-]; 5 March 1696 – 27 March 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. He was prolific, and worked not only in Italy, but also in Germany and Spain.

Giovan Battista Tiepolo, together with Giambattista Pittoni, Canaletto, Giovan Battista Piazzetta, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, and Francesco Guardi are considered the traditional Old Masters of that period.

The Signoria of Venice (Serenissima Signoria) was the supreme body of government of the Republic of Venice. The older Commune of Venice was replaced by the Signoria from 1423 on, being later officially adopted in the Promissione Ducale by Cristoforo Moro (12 May 1462). It constituted a center of power which included the doge's power.

The Signoria can be thought of as the combination of the Doge and the other persons commissioned to collaborate and to rule with him. With the passage of time these functionaries became copartners.

A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessary conversation between resident members. In the English-speaking world of the 18th and 19th century, having a parlour room was evidence of social status.

The Venetian navy (Venetian: Armada) was the navy of the Venetian Republic which played an important role in the history of the republic and the Mediterranean world. It was the premier navy in the Mediterranean Sea for many centuries between the medieval and early modern periods, providing Venice with control and influence over trade and politics far in excess of the republic's size and population. It was one of the first navies to mount gunpowder weapons aboard ships, and through an organised system of naval dockyards, armouries and chandlers was able to continually keep ships at sea and rapidly replace losses. The Venetian Arsenal was one of the greatest concentrations of industrial capacity prior to the Industrial Revolution and responsible for the bulk of the republic's naval power.

Driven at first by a rivalry with the Byzantine Empire, and later the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa for primacy over trade with the Levant, the Venetian navy was at times technically innovative and yet operationally conservative. With the final fall of Constantinople it played a key role in checking the maritime advance of the Ottoman Empire for over three centuries. The navy's long decline mirrored that of the republic, beginning in the 16th century and ending with the capitulation of the city to Napoleon in 1797.

The Doge on the Bucintoro near the Riva di Sant'Elena (also known as The Departure of the Bucentaur for the Ascension Day Ceremony, and other similar titles) is an oil painting on canvas by the Venetian painter Francesco Guardi. It was painted between 1775 and 1780, and is now in the Louvre in Paris.

This work is one of a series of twelve paintings representing the Solennità dogali (The Doge's Solemnities), in which the artist has faithfully copied the scenes drawn by Giovanni Antonio Canal and engraved by Giambattista Brustolon to commemorate the festivities at the coronation of the Doge Alvise Giovanni Mocenigo in 1763. This has led to some confusion, and the canvases were formerly attributed to Canaletto, though their style was quite unmistakably that of Guardi.

The Genoese School was a regional movement in Italian painting, initiated in the 17th century. The Republic of Genoa was a rich oligarchic republic, where the authorities were powerful bankers. Unlike Florence, Ferrara, Rome, Rimini, and Venice, Genoa was not developed into a significant arts center during the Renaissance. An original school of painting arose in the 1600s, developing Flemish contacts after visits by Rubens and van Dyck. The best painter was Bernardo Strozzi, called il Cappuccino or il Prete Genovese, of great importance also for Venice. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called il Grechetto, took up a genre already made famous by Sinibaldo Scorza with paintings of animals and still lifes under Flemish and Venetian influence. Domenico Fiasella and Gioacchino Assereto employed a Caravaggesque style, while Valerio Castello was more eclectic. The decorators Domenico Piola and Gregorio de Ferrari worked in the churches and palaces of Genoa.

In the first half of the 18th century Alessandro Magnasco dominated painting with his strange personality, his nervous technique and his exaggerated chiaroscuro; his expressionistic distortions created a fantastic world reminiscent of Salvator Rosa, Marco Ricci, and Francesco Guardi.