939, 940. VENICE: THE PIAZZETTA, AND THE DUCAL PALACE.
Canaletto (Venetian: 1697-1768). See 127.
Canaletto's representation of the central spot of Venice. In 939 is the Piazzetta, the little Piazza or square, in front the church of St. Mark, with its bell towers; on the left are the mint and library; on the right is the ducal palace. This appears again in 940, with the famous column of St. Mark, patron saint of Venice, while beyond it is the Ponte della Paglia, the prisons, and the Riva degli Schiavoni.
941. VENICE: THE GRIMANI PALACE.
Canaletto (Venetian: 1697-1768). See 127.
This palace, situated on the Grand Canal and used until lately as the post-office, was built in the sixteenth century by San Micheli, and is "the principal type at Venice, and one of the best in Europe, of the central architecture of the Renaissance schools—that carefully studied and perfectly executed architecture to which those schools owe their principal claim to our respect, and which became the model of most of the important works subsequently produced by civilised nations.... It is composed of three stories of the Corinthian order (i.e. in which the ornament is concave, distinguished from Doric, in which it is convex), at once simple, delicate, and sublime; but on so colossal a scale that the three-storied palaces on its right and left only reach to the cornice which marks the level of its first floor" (Stones of Venice, vol. iii. ch. ii. §§ 1, 2). Buildings in the same style in London are St. Paul's and Whitehall.
942. ETON COLLEGE.
Canaletto (Venetian: 1697-1768). See under 127.
Painted during the artist's first English visit, 1746-1748, perhaps in the same year (1747) that Gray published his well-known ode—