venetian art, 1600–1797 847
and attempted to impose its foreign policy on them. So Venice kept up its
appearances. Within this context it is not irrelevant to mention that high-
standing guests, like Bolagnos, were usually accommodated in the private
palaces of distinguished families.
in his grand views, whether painted, drawn, or engraved, Canaletto
often included what seem snapshots of a specific, actual moment in time,
like the act of repaving St. Mark’s square, the scaffolding of the cupola of
the Salute, or the hoisting up of a platform along the campanile of San
Marco (Fig. 22.11). they were in all likelihood not inserted casually so as
to enliven the scene and give it couleur local. these particular details may
have been of specific interest to the actual commissioner of the paint-
ing. the most convincing example in this respect forms the so-called
Stonemasons Yard of the national Gallery in London. the name of the
commissioner is not handed down to us. nevertheless, the prominence
of the stonecutter’s workplace in the square in front of the Church of
San Vidal makes one suspect that it cannot have been of particular inter-
est to a foreigner.95 the background features the Church of Santa Maria
della Carità, now the accademia, on the other side of the Grand Canal.
a lovely impression of life in the street at any given moment is obtained
when one focuses on the parts where all kind of people of different social
backgrounds animate Canaletto’s streets and squares while in the midst
of ordinary, quotidian activities: the hanging of laundry, the unloading of
a boat, a chat between senators, or a stroll along the riva degli Schiavoni.
the immediacy of these observations is striking.
a good deal of Canaletto’s work can be qualified as “run of the mill”
when he catered to the average pre-tourists who liked to bring back
home visible records of the places to which they had traveled. the wars
of the austrian succession (1740–48) in which practically all the powers
of europe were involved, contributed noticeably to the decline in tourism
in Venice. therefore, the artist cannot be blamed for producing works for
a potential circle of anonymous customers. When he worked on specific
commissions, however, like those conceived in england where he worked
intermittently in the years after 1746, the painter demonstrates how bril-
liantly he mastered his trade.96 nonetheless, with a style becoming more
mechanical over the years, he was not assured of constant acclaim, and he
95 exh. cat. (London/Washington, 2010–11).
96 Charles Beddington, Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746–1755 (new
Haven, 2006); Francis Vivian, The Consul Smith Collection: Masterpieces of Italian drawing
from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle (Munich, 1989).