Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto (Venice 1697 - 1768) VEDUTA DEL BACINO DI SAN MARCO DALLA RIVA DEGLI SCHIAVONI oil on canvas, 57.5x102.8 cm BACINO DI S. MARCO: LOOKING WEST FROM THE RIVA DEGLI SCHIAVONI oil on canvas, cm 57.5x102.8 Provenance (Venice, Francesco Algarotti?); New York, T. collection.E. Blakeslee; Boston, E.D. Vrandeger collection, to 1943; Boston, Vose Gallery; New York, Acquavella Gallery, 1943; New York, J.M. Heimann collection, 1944; New York, Arthur Erlanger collection; London, Matthiesen Gallery, 1994; private collection Bibliography J. Constable - J.G. Links, Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697 - 1768, Oxford 1976; Second edition reissued with supplement and additional plates, Oxford 1989, I, table 33, fig. 139; II, p. 253-54, no. 139; L. Puppi, Canaletto. L'opera pittorica completa, Milan 1968, no. 341A (ill.); A. Corboz, Canaletto. An Imaginary Venice, Venice 1985, I, p. 106 and detail on p. 109; II, p. 743; table P 465; J.G. Links, A Supplement to W.G. Constable's Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697 - 1768, London 1998, p. 15, no. 139. This extraordinary panoramic view of Venice finds its center at the entrance to the Grand Canal and frames the major ecclesiastical and civic buildings overlooking the basin of St. Mark's. From left to right, it is possible to make out, albeit from an unusual angle, the church of San Giorgio Maggiore on the island of the same name; further back, the island of Giudecca with the Palladian church of the Redeemer and the now nonexistent church of San Giacomo. In the center, the Punta della Dogana with the Salute church to the left of the Grand Canal; on the opposite side, a series of palaces leads to Piazzetta San Marco, where it is possible to recognize, illuminated by the sun, the corner of the Sansovinian Library. Next on the right is the volume of the Doge's Palace, beyond which towers the bell tower of St. Mark's and one of the domes of the Basilica Marciana. Alongside, toward the Riva degli Schiavoni from which the view is taken, the building of the Carceri and the church of the Pietà, with its facade under construction. This last detail offers an important datum for a chronological definition of our painting: the church was in fact built to a design by Giorgio Massari starting in 1745, and remained unfinished in its façade-as seen in the painting-until 1906. Having moved to England in search of new clients and new subjects precisely in 1745, Canaletto could therefore only see it in its new appearance upon his return from London, after December 1755, perhaps early in 1756. This terminus post quem moreover fully coincides with what is suggested by the stylistic features of the painting, from the definition of the "speckles" with rapid puffs of the brush to the subdued chromatic intonation all tuned between grays and blues. Related to this view is the drawing in Windsor in the British Royal Collections, from the collection of Consul Joseph Smith, the artist's first patron and agent with British collectors. The sheet (inv. 7454; K.T. Parker, The Italian Drawings at Windsor Castle, Oxford 1948, p. 33, no. 24 and table 33) actually reproduces the central part of this panoramic view, excluding St. George's Church on the left and the buildings beyond the Pieta Church on the right. Repeatedly featured in other views, the individual buildings in our painting appear in various sheets of the well-known Academy notebook. As far as we know, this panoramic view was made in only two copies, the second of which (Constable-Links 1998, p. 15, no. 139 ⃰ ) with minimal variations in the figures is also very close to ours in size. As a result, it is not possible to determine which of the two can be identified with the painting that belonged to Francesco Algarotti and is thus described in a list of his possessions following his death in 1764, another element that helps to circumscribe the execution of our view in a short span of years: "Vue de Venise dans sa plus belle situation. Elle est prise des Fours publics sur la rive des Esclavons, d'où l'on découvre l'Isle de Saint George, le Canal de la Giudecca, la Douanne de la mer avec una partie du Grand Canal jusqu'à la Charité; les greniers publics, la Monnoye, la Bibliothèque, la petite place de Saint Marc, le Palais Ducal, les Prisons, et partie de la Rive des Esclavons jusqu'à la Piété; avec des vaisseaux, des barques et des gondoles."