57 was not considered suitable for upper-class women, who, to preserve their respectability, would always have to be introduced by a male intermediary.10 Such, then, was the incredible mingling of sexes and classes that characterised Venetian life – for visitors, a source of astonishment, fascination, and seduction. For the city’s ruling elite, however, it was also a source of anxiety: the coffeehouses had become the most important venues for meeting and exchanging information, and the fact that the nobility were consorting with other classes, and especially with foreigners, raised the spectre of espionage and the leaking of state secrets. Women’s freedom of movement – especially that of patrician women – began to worry the inquisitors, too: “Since it has become the general custom for women, even of noble status, to expose themselves to the eyes of all on streets and squares, even at times when the wearing of masks is not allowed, the natural inhibitions which arise from a sense of modesty have receded and women have even taken to entering cafes.”11 In 1766, following various rulings requiring coffeehouses to close atmidnight and remove chairs and benches overnight, the inquisitors went so far as to completely forbid women of all social classes from entering cafés. The order was felt to be so nonsensical, however, so contrary to the Venetian way of life and the joy of freeing women from the strictures of the past, that a wave of protest ensued, led by coffeehouse proprietors and the wider citizenry, which even found expression in verse: “E i caffè fe’ serar? O che cogioni!” (And you want to close the cafes? Shame on you!).12 In the end, the measures were revoked. Nobody in the city wanted to see its public space divided up in this way and it was agreed that coffeehouses were to be for the use of both sexes. This episode aside, the whole of Venetian public life was typified at this period by conviviality and diversity.13 It was no wonder, therefore, that by 1706 Rosalba Carriera was already receiving commissions from illustrious foreigners – such as the Bavarian prince, Maximilian II Fig. 1 Antonio Canal, called Canaletto Piazza San Marco and the Colonnade of the Procuratie c. 1756 · oil on canvas 46.4 × 38.1 cm London, The National Gallery, inv. no. NG 2516
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