Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Scuola de San Marco

Canaletto depicted one of Venice's grandest squares in this view of the campo before the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Scuola Grande di San Marco. The massive Gothic church, one of the largest in Venice, served as the burial place of twenty-five Venetian doges. Beside it, the Scuola's ornate Renaissance facade gleams in the clear Italian light, its elaborate marble decorations rendered with careful precision.

The famous equestrian statue of the mercenary captain Bartolomeo Colleoni by Verrocchio stands prominently in the square, one of the finest Renaissance bronze monuments. Canaletto's careful rendering of light and shadow brings out the varied textures of weathered stone, polished marble, and shadowed arcades. Venetian citizens go about their daily business below. This painting is now part of the collection at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, one of Europe's finest Old Master collections.