Fausto Zonaro

This animated drawing is a study for Zonaro’s large oil of the same title depicting the fire brigade rushing across the Galata Bridge to attend fire in Pera. Fire was a constant danger in Constantinople, where timber was still the main building material (more resistant to earthquakes, which were considered an even greater threat to life and limb than fire). Among the bystanders making way for the pumpmen are Zonaro and his wife Elisa, standing on the far left.