Canaletto | The Molo Seen from the San Marco Basin, 1730 | Louvre Museum, Paris
Canaletto (1697-1768)🎨 painted some ten versions of this subject, the most similar to this one being in the Uffizi in Florence.
The prototype for the series can be dated to around 1730.
Beginning in the 15th century, and especially in the 18th century, Venetian painters delighted in depicting parts of their city in exact detail.
The Rome-trained painter Luca Carlevaris (1663-1730) adopted the tradition in Venice and handed it on to his apprentice Antonio Canal, who combined it with experience gained from his father, a theatre set designer.