Studio of Canaletto, 'Venice: The Piazzetta from the Molo', about 1740
About the work
Overview
This view is of the Piazzetta, an area between the Piazza San Marco and the waterfront (known as the Molo). Elegantly dressed Venetians and foreign visitors – like the trio at the bottom right – mill around the square, while government officials in black robes emerge from the Doge’s Palace.
Beyond, we see the basilica of San Marco, its slender campanile (bell tower) to the left. The white building on the left is the library; people gather along the colonnade below. The lines of white stone laid across the square mark out the position of temporary market stalls, like those covered with parasols in the distance.
This copy was probably made by one of Canaletto’s pupils and is based on a drawing from which he prepared his own pictures. A sketch of a similar view is in the Royal Collection at Windsor. Canaletto painted this composition several times; examples are now at Woburn Abbey and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Venice: The Piazzetta from the Molo
- Artist
- Studio of Canaletto
- Artist dates
- 1697 - 1768
- Date made
- about 1740
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 100.4 × 107.4 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
- Inventory number
- NG939
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1956Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1956
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1971M. Levey, The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1971
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1976W.G. Constable and J.G. Links, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768, revised edn, Oxford 1976
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1986Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
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1989W.G. Constable and J.G. Links, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768, 3rd edn, Oxford 1989
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1990K.T. Parker and C. Crawley, The Drawings of Antonio Canaletto in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Bologna 1990
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
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