Piazza San Marco, Venice

The vast expanse of Venice’s principal public square unfolds under a pale sky, the basilica’s domes and the clock tower rising above the arcaded buildings that frame the piazza. Bernardo Bellotto, nephew and pupil of Canaletto, inherited his uncle’s tradition of precise veduta painting and brought it to courts across Europe. His Venice views, painted before he settled in Dresden and Warsaw, capture the city with a cool, analytical clarity that distinguishes his work from Canaletto’s warmer tonality.