by Andira Vitale

Who is the woman on the balcony of Palazzo Priuli?

The Place: Palazzo Prioli in Venice is a Gothic-style palace built by the end of the 14th century.

In this painting depicting this magnificent palace, a woman on the balcony attracts our attention. But who is this woman?

A beautiful woman is seated on a large red velvet pillow with a book on her lap. But she has taken a break from her book to observe something below her on the left. We need to find out where is she looking. It could be a boat approaching the canal. Or is she just in her thoughts, thinking about what she just read?

We can see the cracks and the repairs on the wall on the right. The Gothic arches shape the Corinthian columns of the hotel, and the typical Venetian chimney is on the left. And the dome in the background, which belongs to the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, one of the largest Chiesa in Venice…

On the left was a typical Venetian chimney with a wide top – designed to direct dirty coal dust and smoke upwards and away from the houses, up into the sky, where winds would carry away the fumes and dust.

It’s probably springtime. The tree on the left of the canal is covered in light green, youthful foliage. The shutters of the building opposite are open to let in light and air. The sky is slightly brooding, clouds are building, and perhaps there is a hint of humidity in the air. A small wooden boat is moored at the side of the canal, waiting for its next duty. Such magical memories of Venice!

At the center of this fascinating view is the woman on the balcony.

This lovely woman looking at us from the most beautiful corners of this magical city is Anna Passini. The wife of the Austrian Painter Ludwig died shortly after their marriage. When the painter Passini painted this picture, his heart was broken like the cracks in the wall. When he painted this painting, it had been a few months since his beloved wife Anna passed away from tuberculosis. The painter expressed his love for his wife with this painting. The dreamy atmosphere mixed with the sense of reality in this painting of Anna.

It is “Anna Passini on the balcony of Palazzo Priuli in Venice” by Ludwig Passini. The date of the artwork is 1868, but you can catch the same atmosphere today. It is still possible today to take a photo from the same angle as Passini’s, on the same balcony. Those bridges did not collapse; those gondolas are still in service, and it is still possible to go up to that balcony where Anna Passini was sitting and even sleep in that room.

Ludwig Passini was born on 9 July 1832 in Vienna. The Passini family moved to Trieste in 1850. On 9 November 1864 Passini married Anna Warsaw (1841–1866), daughter of Robert and Mary Warschauer, great-granddaughter of the banker Joseph Mendelssohn and great-granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. The couple, who lived alternately in Berlin and Rome, had a daughter. Anna died a year and a half after the wedding.

Passini was taught art first by his father and then studied at the Vienna Art Academy under the painters Joseph von Führich and Leopold Kupelwieser. In 1850 Passini settled in Venice, where he worked in the studio of Carl Werner. Between 1853 and 1870 Passini lived in Rome, where his work focused on the human figure contrasted with architectural and interior elements, and within narrative themes. From 1873, and for the rest of his life, he remained in Venice, albeit with occasional visits to Berlin, where his watercolors often depicted daily Venetian life, ordinary people, and portraiture.