Canaletto, 'Venice: The Piazza San Marco', about 1756
Two Views of Piazza San Marco
This captivating pair of view paintings – Piazza San Marco and Piazza San Marco and the Colonnade of the Procuratie – depict the Piazza San Marco, home to some of Venice’s most famous landmarks.
Canaletto painted these works during the late 1750s, shortly after his return to Venice from England. Because of their small scale and upright format they are somewhat unusual when compared to the artist’s earlier panoramic views, but his choice of composition was still innovative. In most of his paintings, we look across the Grand Canal or the lagoon that surrounds Venice. Here, Canaletto has experimented with viewpoints taken from within an architectural structure, for example an archway within a colonnade.
His mature phase prompted certain stylistic changes: he moved towards sombre colouring and darker tonality, and he tended to paint small canvases. This appealed to Venetian collectors and foreign tourists – smaller paintings would have been more affordable and easier to transport.
This captivating pair of view paintings – Piazza San Marco and Piazza San Marco and the Colonnade of the Procuratie – depict the Piazza San Marco, home to some of Venice’s most famous landmarks. It was the principal destination of every visitor to the city during Canaletto’s lifetime, and remains hugely popular today.
Canaletto painted these works shortly after his return to Venice from England, where he had lived and worked between 1746 and 1755. Because of their small scale and upright format, they are somewhat unusual when compared to his earlier panoramic views, like The Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day, or his expansive scenes of everyday life, such as Venice: The Upper Reaches of the Grand Canal with San Simeone Piccolo. Canaletto was no less innovative in his choice of composition. Rather than give a view of the Grand Canal or the lagoon that surrounds Venice, which feature prominently in most of his paintings, he experimented with viewpoints taken from within an architectural structure – for example, an archway within a colonnade.
His mature phase prompted certain stylistic changes: he moved towards sombre colouring and darker tonality, and he tended to paint small canvases. This appealed to Venetian collectors and foreign tourists, as smaller paintings would have been more affordable and easier to transport. Unlike many of his Venetian views, of which multiple versions and copies were made by him and his pupils, there are no replicas of either scene – the compositions are unique.
Canaletto’s view paintings found their way into collections throughout Europe as travellers returned home with these souvenirs of the Grand Tour. We know very little about the early history of these two paintings, but they remained together as a pair in the remaining decades of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century. In 1910 they were among a sizeable picture collection offered to the National Gallery as part of the Salting Bequest, which included works by other eighteenth-century Venetian view painters, such as Bellotto’s Venice: The Grand Canal facing the Santa Croce and a number of Guardi capricci scenes.
More paintings by Canaletto
