Venice: a Stage

In his canvases, Canaletto transforms Venice into grand pictorial theater. For example, in the sweeping view from the island of San Giorgio Maggiore toward San Marco—commissioned by the Marquess of Hertford during his Grand Tour—a triangular quay juts into the foreground like a stage, where lawyers, priests, merchants, and beggars animate the scene. Behind them, ships under Venetian, British, and Dutch flags enliven the lagoon against the city’s spectacular skyline. In The Bucintoro on Ascension Day, the Doge’s voyage to symbolically “wed the sea,” becomes a pageant of civic pride, while the View of the Dogana reveals Canaletto’s optical precision and ability to seamlessly blend multiple viewpoints into one coherent whole. His pictures appear to capture reality but are in fact staged performances of his artistic ingenuity.