A drawing of Campo Santo Stefano in Venice. In the centre of the composition is Palazzo Morosini, with its arched gateway. On its right is Palazzo Loredan.

Campo Santo Stefano lies in the southern bend of the Grand Canal, west of San Marco. Canaletto has taken his view looking south from the first-floor window of the house on the corner of Calle delle Botteghe and Calle dei Frati; the church of Santo Stefano itself, forming the north-east side of the square, is thus out of sight beyond the left of the composition.

This is one of the largest squares in Venice, with two well-heads. The pair that can still be seen today, in the left foreground and middle distance here, were recent replacements (of 1724) when Canaletto made his drawing. To the left the buildings have unusually extravagant examples of the typically Venetian flared chimneystacks. Beyond is Palazzo Morosini, with its imposing gateway in the far corner of the square. To the right is the Palladian-style northern façade of Palazzo Loredan (formerly Mocenigo), added in 1618 to the pre-existing Renaissance building. The palazzo was converted in 1810 into the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti.

The drawing corresponds, excepting the figures, with a painting at Woburn Abbey, the composition of which was engraved by Visentini for the Prospectus of 1742. A version of the drawing by Bellotto in Darmstadt (AE 2239), extends the composition a little to the left to include another chimneystack, but otherwise agrees in all respects.

Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005