The Grand Canal in Venice with Palazzo Bembo

about 1768

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

47 × 76.5 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-136175

A luminous morning haze bathes Venice's Grand Canal. Guided by oarsmen, gondolas and cargo boats glide through the placid water; their hulls traverse the gentle reflections cast by the surrounding buildings. Masts and vertical pilings punctuate the pale, overcast sky. Buildings of varying shapes and scale--but all sharing a muted palette--extend from edge to edge and deep into the distance. On the right, a few early-risers mill about on the banks of the canal. Francesco Guardi often painted *vedute,* or views, of Venice's principal waterway. Many of the buildings in this view were palaces of important Venetian families. The most prominent among them is the two-toned Palazzo Bembo on the canal's left bank. Its owners, and Guardi's likely patrons, even appear on the palace's upper balcony. Guardi appreciated Venice as a city of constant change rather than as a static tourist destination. On the right side, behind the tiny figures on shore, he depicted the Church of San Geremia in the midst of its renovation. The two-toned facade of the Palazzo Bembo draws attention to a recent addition to this Renaissance palace. Amid this urban transformation, Guardi reveals the tra…