The waterfall

For a long time this waterfall carried Marco Ricci's name, and it is easy to see why: the tumbling water, the dark rocks and the small figures dwarfed beside them are all things he painted. The Accademia in Venice, which holds it, now lists it more cautiously, as the work of Ricci's circle rather than his own hand, and the question of who actually painted it is not settled. What is not in doubt is the type of scene. The waterfall was a set piece of Venetian landscape in these years, a chance to show falling water and wet stone, and this is a large upright canvas built entirely around that single motif.