3-038-944 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Ser Pandolfo", by H. Wallis, 1871. Engraving of a painting in the Exhibition of Water-Colour Paintings at the New British Institution, depicting a '...typical, though fictitious, Venetian personage...one of those civic grandees of the palmy days of Venice, as we learn by the ample crimson silk robes which envelop his portly person. Magistrate and member of the Consiglio, he may be; but municipal duties sit light upon him, patriotic anxiety does not disturb his digestion or equanimity. "Ser," the familiar contraction of his title, suggests that he is not held in high esteem among the populace, even by the poor flower-girl who chances to recognise him...the warm, soft, moist breath of the Adriatic has a relaxing, somniferous influence. So he sits down on the marble bench, against a richly-inlaid outside wall of his own palazzo...his head lolls back, his plump hands fold themselves over his round, "well-lined" stomach, and there he takes, al fresco, his siesta. And thus, in this undignified attitude of ease, he is found by a little flower-girl, whose charming figure presents the strongest contrast in her slender litheness, her arch vivacity of expression, her picturesque rags, and in every other respect'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.