A drawing of part of the Grand Canal in Venice. The large building on the left is Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni. The building in the centre of the drawing, with two obelisks on its roof, is Palazzo Giustinian-Lolin. On the right are Casa Civran Badoer and Campo San Vidal.

In the left foreground is Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni, remodelled by Vincenzo Scamozzi after 1609 to unify the pre-existing buildings on this site. In the distance, as the canal turns to the right, is Ca’ Rezzonico with a pitched roof, prominent in the foreground of the following drawing. Seen to its right with two obelisks on the roof are Palazzo Giustinian-Lolin, (an early work by Longhena), then Casa Civran Badoer, followed by the low buildings gathered around Campo San Vidal, the site of the Stonemasons’ Yard in the National Gallery, London (c.1725), the masterpiece of Canaletto’s early period.

The view is essentially that obtained today from the Accademia bridge, though Canaletto has not shown the two banks of the canal in register, for Palazzo Giustinian-Lolin should actually be closer to the viewer than Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni. This inaccuracy must have arisen in the process of assembling the composition from three openings of the Sketchbook. The painting at Woburn Abbey shows more to the left, and alters the proportions of the buildings; much closer to the present composition is a second painting (private collection) that even reproduces most of the boats on the canal.

Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005