A drawing of the church of San Pietro di Castello in Venice. The church's belltower is at the far right. Barges and gondolas are depicted in the foreground.

The church of San Pietro, on its island in the sestiere of Castello in the east of Venice, served as the cathedral of the city and the seat of the Patriarch of Venice from the eleventh century until 1807, when it was supplanted by San Marco. It was founded probably in the seventh century and rebuilt several times; the façade received its present form in the late sixteenth century, in white Istrian stone to an old design by Palladio, very similar to his Redentore and taller in its proportions than Canaletto has drawn it here. To the right of the façade is the palace of the Patriarch, now divided into apartments. The slightly leaning fifteenth-century belltower, visible from all over the city, lost its dome in a lightning strike of 1822, and trees now grow from the grass in front of the church, but otherwise the view has changed little.

Canaletto took his wide-angle view from a first-floor window in a building to the left of the Calle Largo di Castello, looking east across the Canale di San Pietro, whose width is here exaggerated. The wooden footbridge to the right still runs from the alleyway to the Isola di San Pietro. To the left of the composition is a view of the Dolomites on the horizon across the lagoon, now obscured by boathouses. In the National Gallery, London is a painting of the composition, of disputed status but good enough to be from Canaletto’s studio with many details painted by the master himself.

Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005