Canaletto - Piazza San Marco [late 1720s]

Canaletto - Piazza San Marco [late 1720s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The most famous view painter of eighteenth-century Venice, Canaletto was particularly popular with British visitors to the city. This wonderfully fresh and well preserved canvas shows the square of San Marco. The windows of the bell tower are fewer in number than in actuality, and the flagstaffs are too tall, but otherwise Canaletto took few liberties with the topography. The loose, ragged handling and high key suggest a date in the late 1720s.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 68.6 x 112.4 cm]

Canaletto - Venice, Santa Maria della Salute [c.1740]

Canaletto - Venice, Santa Maria della Salute [c.1740], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A bird's eye view is to a degree imaginary, even if the scene is real, and this view is taken from high above the Grand Canal and the landing stage at Santa Maria della Salute. The panorama embraces the entrance to the canal in the direction of the bacino, with, at the right, the façade and dome of the church, one of the most splendid sights that Venice affords. The Salute church was designed by Baldassare Longhena (1598–1682) and built beginning in 1631, in thanksgiving for the deliverance of the city from the virulent plague of the previous year. Beyond is the façade of the Seminario Patriarcale and further along the tower of the Dogana, or Customs House, seen above warehouse roofs. At the left on the waterfront are some of the most important buildings in Venice: the mint, the library, one of the columns in the Piazzetta, Palazzo Ducale, and the prison, with the Riva degli Schiavoni stretching in a gentle curve toward the right. In the foreground are gondolas; beyond, large numbers of ocean-going ships, their rigging silhouetted against the sky. 

The scene, compressed in depth and painted with maximum clarity in a clear light with slanting shadows, is probably from about 1740. Canaletto's earliest picture of the canal and the Salute from the west is ten or twelve years earlier, while his largest and most famous canvas of this subject dates to 1744 and is in the British royal collection.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 47.6 x 79.4 cm]

Canaletto - The Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day [c.1745]

Canaletto - The Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day [c.1745], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Bucintoro was the ceremonial boat of the Doge, the ruler of the Venetian republic. Once a year on Ascension Day, the Doge and other officials boarded this vessel to participate in a ritual celebrating the marriage of Venice and the sea. Here, the assembled group can be seen lining the dock. The painting is dated by the jagged edge of the bell tower, which was struck by lightning in 1745.

[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 114.9 x 162.6 cm]

Canaletto - View the Arch of Constantine with the Coliseum [1742-45]

Canaletto - View the Arch of Constantine with the Coliseum [1742-45], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Canaletto specialised in vedute, or views, of Venice that he sold to tourists on the Grand Tour in the 1700s. For a brief time in the 1740s, he painted scenes of contemporary life set around the principal monuments of ancient Rome, based either on drawings made during an earlier visit to Rome or on engravings by other artists. Both groups of his views appealed to the traveler as well as the antiquarian. 

Seen through the central bay of the Arch of Constantine is the Colosseum, which Canaletto shifted to the left in the interests of compositional design. Figures converse, stroll, or carry out daily chores in the vicinity of these ancient buildings. To the left, a lone man sits on ruins with his back to the viewer, perhaps sketching or writing. Wealthy tourists and their servants laden with goods contrast with the poor Roman natives who have nothing, such as the woman who lies against the Arch or the man with a cane at the right. In this painting, Canaletto seems to remark on the gulf between Rome's ancient glory and the city's current impoverished state.

[Oil on canvas, 32.25 x 48 inches]

Canaletto - Porta Portello, Padua [c.1741-42]

Canaletto - Porta Portello, Padua [c.1741-42], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 62 x 109 cm]

Canaletto - Venice, The Piazza San Marco [c.1756]

Canaletto - Venice, The Piazza San Marco [c.1756], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This is a view of San Marco and the campanile from beneath the colonnade of the Procuratie Nuove on the south side of the piazza. One of the figures in the foreground is holding a cup and saucer; nearby (but out of the picture) is the site of the famous Café Florian, a well-known centre of Venetian social life.

[Oil on canvas, 46.4 x 38.1 cm]

Canaletto - Piazza San Marco in Venice [c.1723-24]

Canaletto - Piazza San Marco in Venice [c.1723-24], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Canaletto was the leading painter of city views, or vedute, in eighteenth-century Venice. This early work, which nonetheless displays the most outstanding features of his style, depicts the most famous square in Venice from a high viewpoint, thus ensuring a broader frame for the composition. The horizontal line formed in the background by the façades of St Mark's and the Doge's Palace contrasts sharply with the vertical thrust of the Campanile, while the Procuratie lining both sides of the square give depth to the perspective. Another distinguishing feature of Canaletto's work was the painstaking rendering of all the elements that appear in his works, designed to create atmosphere in his view paintings.

[Oil on canvas, 141.5 x 204.5 cm]

Canaletto - Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh [1754]

Canaletto - Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh [1754], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The inscription in Italian on the back of the original canvas states that the picture was painted in London in 1754 for the artist's patron Thomas Hollis, and that the view was unique in the artist's work. The Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, was erected as a public venue for various entertainments in 1741 and closed in 1803. Musical concerts were held and Mozart performed there in 1764.

[Oil on canvas, 47 x 75.6 cm]

Canaletto - Eton College [c.1754]

Canaletto - Eton College [c.1754], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The school is here shown from the east; it is viewed from across the river Thames. The general position of the chapel appears as it would be seen from this direction, but many of the other details of the buildings are invented. The painting is dated on grounds of style. Canaletto was staying nearby at Windsor in 1747, but this seems to be a later work.

[Oil on canvas, 61.6 x 107.7 cm]

Canaletto - A Regatta on the Grand Canal, Venice [c.1735]

Canaletto - A Regatta on the Grand Canal, Venice [c.1735], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The regatta was an annual carnival event in Venice from the 14th century onwards, and continues to this day. While regattas were sometimes held in honour of distinguished visitors, the regatta in the painting appears to be the annual carnival event. The pavilion at the left is a temporary structure from which the prizes were presented. It bears the arms of the Doge Alvise Pisani, who ruled from 1735 to 1741.

[Oil on canvas, 117.2 x 186.7 cm]

Canaletto - The Doge's Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni [late 1730s]

Canaletto - The Doge's Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni [late 1730s], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

The buildings are (from left to right): the column of St Mark; the Doge's Palace; the Ponte della Paglia; the prisons; the uncompleted church of the Pietà (St. Maria della Visitazione) can be seen along the Riva degli Schiavoni. The architecture in this area is a generalised version of that which can actually be seen there. In front of the Ponte della Paglia is a temporary hut and a knife-grinder's stall. Previously thought to be a studio work, recent cleaning makes it clear that the painting is an autograph work (a painting which is thought to have been painted entirely by the specified artist, rather than being, for instance, partly, or wholly, by studio assistants), probably of the late 1730s.

[Oil on canvas, 61.3 x 99.8 cm]

Canaletto - The Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day, Venice [c.1740]

Canaletto - The Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day, Venice [c.1740], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

The painting shows a view towards the Doge's Palace on the right, with Santa Maria della Salute and the entrance to the Grand Canal on the left. The annual ceremony of the Wedding of the Sea is about to take place. The official procession is making its way from the Doge's Palace to the state barge, the Bucintoro, and the Doge's ceremonial umbrella is just visible in the crowd. The Doge will drop a gold ring from the barge to symbolise the marriage of Venice to the sea. The arms of the Doge Alvise Pisani, who ruled from 1735-41 are visible on the Bucintoro. These details and stylistic considerations give the approximate date for the work. 

[Oil on canvas, 121.9 x 182.8 cm]

Canaletto - The Stonemason's Yard [c.1725]

Canaletto - The Stonemason's Yard [c.1725], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

The Stonemason's Yard is considered one of Canaletto's finest works. The view is one across the Campo (small square) St. Vidal, looking over the Grand Canal to the church of S. Maria della Carità (Saint Mary of Charity). The square has been temporarily transformed into a workshop for repairing the nearby church (not seen in the picture) of St. Vidal. The blocks of Istrian stone were brought by water to the square. The campanile (bell-tower) of the church of St. Maria della Carità on the far side of the Grand Canal collapsed in 1744, after the painting was made, and was not rebuilt.

The painting is not precisely datable but the bold composition, the densely applied paint and the careful execution of the figures are characteristic of Canaletto's works of the mid- to late 1720s. The informal nature of the scene and the unusual view across the Grand Canal suggest that it was made for a local Venetian patron rather than a foreign visitor to Venice.

The National Gallery, London, exhibition entitled 'Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals' is currently running from October 13, 2010 to January 16, 2011.

[Oil on canvas, 123.8 x 162.9 cm]