Depicting the Doge's formal audience in the Sala del Collegio of Venice Ducal Palace, this large sheet reproduces an original design credited to Canaletto and engraved by Giovanni Battista Brustolon in 1763-66 as part of series of twelve prints celebrating ceremonies and festivals of the Republic (see inv.1986.1.380). The  image on the print was later used as a model by Francesco Guardi for a series of paintings now in the Louvre (inv. 325), which omitted some detail present in the print, like the second window and group of figures at left, a figure on the right and part of the ceiling. The attribution to Francesco Guardi of the present drawing, the name under which it joined the Museum in 1965, was later dismissed by Terisio Pignatti, who noticed the drawing's weaknesses and thought instead of a 19th century forgery (letter of 14 August 1973, Achenbach Foundation internal files). Though, while not autograph, the present sheet appears a work from the period, possibly produced within Guardi's workshop or circle and very likely reflecting a lost preparatory drawing by Francesco Guardi for the painting at the Louvre, as recently suggested by Bożena Anna Kowalczyk (Furio Rinaldi, 2021, updated 2025)