A Fortune Teller at Venice

Longhi set this scene in one of the arcades of the Doge's Palace, the seat of the Venetian government, around 1756, and the walls still carry the news of the day. The inscription on the pillar probably refers to Francesco Loredan, elected doge in 1752, and the notice on the wall to the election of a priest at San Trovaso, a parish church in Dorsoduro.

Beneath them a woman fortune teller reads the palm of a fashionable lady. On a plain chair and table beside them balances an odd object, a long speaking tube, which let a fortune teller pass private information to one client's ear alone. A fruit seller with a full basket stops to watch, a masked figure leans closer, and further back stand a man in official dress and a woman in a black mask. One woman stares straight out at us.