Canaletto, Venice: Piazza San Marco

This small picture shows the great Piazza San Marco – the most famous square in Venice – seen through a tall archway. Canaletto had already used this device in a view of London (private collection), in which we look at the city from beneath the newly constructed Westminster Bridge, but it is a unique composition among his Venetian scenes.

Canaletto has placed us in the shadows, just behind a small group of figures; it’s as if we are walking past them along the colonnade. A vendor surrounded by baskets shows his wares to two gentlemen, though it’s not clear what he is selling. A small dog waits patiently. Perched on a barrel, a man turns his head towards us, while another peeps out from behind a pillar.

The archway focuses attention on the buildings beyond: a frontal view of the Basilica di San Marco, the city’s most sacred church – it housed the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist – and to the right, its elegant campanile (bell tower). Canaletto drew and painted the campanile numerous times, but he nearly always showed it as taller and more slender than it was in reality. Between the campanile and the column in front of us, we catch a tiny glimpse of the Doge’s Palace.

The paving stones and buildings that line the square recede at a sharp angle, which Canaletto exaggerated, leading our eye deeper into the scene. The white stone lines laid across the square – marking the position of temporary stalls during religious possessions, public celebrations and merchant fairs – line up perfectly with the furthest left arch of the basilica beyond. As in the companion piece to this work, Canaletto altered the perspective to create these pleasing points of intersection.

On the left we see the Procuratie Vecchie, Venice’s longest building. Stretching 500 feet along the piazza, it housed the offices of the procurators of San Marco, a prestigious position responsible for the upkeep of the piazza and its architecture. The Procuratie Nuove is on the opposite side (its colonnade was chosen as the viewpoint for the pendant painting). The arch from which we view the square here no longer exists: this side of the piazza was demolished in 1807 by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French occupation of Venice, and replaced with his palatial residence (now the Museo Correr).

Although this picture is unusual in its viewpoint, the muted colour palette and strongly outlined architectural features are typical of Canaletto’s late style. The scene is softly lit. Dots and swirls of paint pick out the basilica and the people in the distance, creating the impression that we are looking on from afar.