Floor plan

Time and place18th-century Italy

18th-century Italy

Piazza San Marco, by Canaletto, late 1720s
SKETCHES FOR A TABLET
The painting depicts many large and small ships on blue-green water. Gondolas in shades of gold, black, red, and blue drift across the water, small people on them pushing long poles through the water. There are also large sailboats and long boats with several rowers. They create a colorful mix. On the left, a large brown building with columns is visible. Some of the boats pull up to it, and many people in colorful clothing are visible on the shore. Behind the water are more large buildings in shades of brown, cream, and tan, with even more people visible on the streets below them. There is a large tower in the center of the painting, and several blue domes are visible in the distance. The sky is light blue, with white and gray clouds drifting across it.
People walk, sit, or stand on a plaza along a canal lined on the far side with buildings in this horizontal landscape painting. The canal begins in the lower left corner and angles slightly right as it travels to the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this composition. One, two, three, or four-story buildings line the canal to the left into the far distance. Arched doorways give direct access to the water, and one person leans out an upper-story window. The buildings are reflected in the gently rippling water, which is painted in shades of olive green. A stepped bridge crosses the canal in the near distance, and two gondoliers guide a long, narrow boat to a platform alongside the plaza in the bottom left corner of the composition. People walk or stand singly or in pairs on the plaza in the bottom right quadrant of the painting. The women wear dresses with long skirts and head coverings in shades of black, white, yellow, or pale pink. The men wear hats, jackets, capes, stockings, and slacks in shades of peanut brown, muted yellow, red, blue, or white. The people all appear to have pale, peachy skin. A statue of a man riding a horse rests on a towering platform in a grassy patch to our right. Beyond it is the blocky form of a red brick church. One man in a pair standing on the plaza gestures toward the entrance with a walking stick and others approach the central entrance. Sunlight streams across the scene from the upper right, throwing the church façade into shadow and casting a deep shadow across the face of another building that encloses the far side of the plaza. That second building has arched windows and doors, statues lining the roofline, and a winged lion over the entrance. A fat cloud trundles across a mostly empty vibrant blue sky above.

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

Works made in Italy in the 18th century.

First room, north wall

  1. Piazza San Marco, by Canaletto, late 1720s
    Piazza San MarcoCanaletto, late 1720sCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. SKETCHES FOR A TABLET
    Sketches for a tabletCarlo Marchionni, ca. 1750Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

First room, south wall

  1. The painting depicts many large and small ships on blue-green water. Gondolas in shades of gold, black, red, and blue drift across the water, small people on them pushing long poles through the water. There are also large sailboats and long boats with several rowers. They create a colorful mix. On the left, a large brown building with columns is visible. Some of the boats pull up to it, and many people in colorful clothing are visible on the shore. Behind the water are more large buildings in shades of brown, cream, and tan, with even more people visible on the streets below them. There is a large tower in the center of the painting, and several blue domes are visible in the distance. The sky is light blue, with white and gray clouds drifting across it.
    Procession of Gondolas in the Bacino di San Marco, VeniceAntonio Joli, 1742 or afterCourtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. People walk, sit, or stand on a plaza along a canal lined on the far side with buildings in this horizontal landscape painting. The canal begins in the lower left corner and angles slightly right as it travels to the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this composition. One, two, three, or four-story buildings line the canal to the left into the far distance. Arched doorways give direct access to the water, and one person leans out an upper-story window. The buildings are reflected in the gently rippling water, which is painted in shades of olive green. A stepped bridge crosses the canal in the near distance, and two gondoliers guide a long, narrow boat to a platform alongside the plaza in the bottom left corner of the composition. People walk or stand singly or in pairs on the plaza in the bottom right quadrant of the painting. The women wear dresses with long skirts and head coverings in shades of black, white, yellow, or pale pink. The men wear hats, jackets, capes, stockings, and slacks in shades of peanut brown, muted yellow, red, blue, or white. The people all appear to have pale, peachy skin. A statue of a man riding a horse rests on a towering platform in a grassy patch to our right. Beyond it is the blocky form of a red brick church. One man in a pair standing on the plaza gestures toward the entrance with a walking stick and others approach the central entrance. Sunlight streams across the scene from the upper right, throwing the church façade into shadow and casting a deep shadow across the face of another building that encloses the far side of the plaza. That second building has arched windows and doors, statues lining the roofline, and a winged lion over the entrance. A fat cloud trundles across a mostly empty vibrant blue sky above.
    The Campo di SS. Giovanni e Paolo, VeniceBernardo Bellotto, 1743/1747Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, south wall

  1. The Supper at Emmaus, by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, c. 1720
    The Supper at EmmausGiovanni Battista Piazzetta, c. 1720Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. The soaring, gilded vault of a central aisle of the inside of a church fills this horizontal painting. The ceiling of the nave curves up and away from us like a tunnel. It is lined with coffers, which have inset panels, decorated with gold. The light-filled nave angles down from the top center of the composition toward the lower left as it moves away from us. The white stone pillars supporting the barrel vault are intricately carved and decorated with pudgy, winged cherubs holding portraits of men, and aisles run parallel to the central nave to our left and right. In the side aisles, pink marble columns flank altars in chapels. At the far end of the church, the nave is interrupted where it opens into the light-filled crossing, before continuing beyond. Marking the space where the long hall of the church is intersected by a shorter arm to create a cross shape is a structure made of four twisting columns supporting a pointed canopy, all cast in bronze. Tiny men and women pray or gather in pairs and small groups along the nave. Some wear tattered clothing and others are elegantly dressed.
    Interior of Saint Peter's, RomeGiovanni Paolo Panini, c. 1754Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, north wall

  1. Portrait of a Boy, ca. 1800
    Portrait of a BoyUnrecorded Italian maker, ca. 1800Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. Nuova pianta di Roma data in luce da Giambattista Nolli l’anno MDCCXLVII, known as La Pianta Grande di Roma, by Giovanni Battista Nolli, 1748
    Nuova pianta di Roma data in luce da Giambattista Nolli l’anno MDCCXLVII, known as La Pianta Grande di RomaGiovanni Battista Nolli, 1748Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. A work made of chiaroscuro woodcut, from three blocks in pink, dark blue, and light blue, on cream laid paper.
    The Old ShepherdConte Antonio Maria Zanetti, the Elder, 1722Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. Warwick Castle: The East Front, by Canaletto, 1752
    Warwick Castle: The East FrontCanaletto, 1752Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. We look slightly down onto a port-side town along a canal, with a church across the water from us in this horizontal landscape painting. A bright blue sky with billowing white, pink, and gray clouds fills the top two-thirds of the painting. Below, a three-masted ship with all but one sail furled is surrounded by a couple dozen black long, low boats, gondolas, and one or two other sailboats. People stand and walk mostly in pairs and trios along the stone walkway under us, which extends into the distance to our right. The women all wear long dresses and most of the men wear suits with knee-length jackets with tails or capes, and hats. The clothing is painted in shades of brick and terracotta red, pine green, royal blue, and gray. The walkway is interrupted by two low walls that partition off an area near us. The angled roofs of stalls line the walkway in the farther distance before it is again interrupted, this time by a two-story, cream-colored building. The walkway continues as a narrower path under an arched arcade on the lower level of that building, alongside the water. On the far side of the canal, to our left and in the distance, a cluster of ivory-white buildings includes a structure with two stone-blue domes. More buildings extend into the deep distance to our left.
    Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, VeniceCanaletto, 1742/1744Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Tobias and the Angel, The Angels Appearing to Abraham, Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels (painting series), by Francesco Guardi, 1750s
    The Sacrifice of Isaac, Tobias and the Angel, The Angels Appearing to Abraham, Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels (painting series)Francesco Guardi, 1750sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal), by Canaletto, 1741
    Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)Canaletto, 1741Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, south wall

  1. The Meeting, by Pietro Longhi, 1746
    The MeetingPietro Longhi, 1746Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, by Sebastiano Ricci, mid-1700s
    Christ and the Woman Taken in AdulterySebastiano Ricci, mid-1700sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. The Triumph of Marius, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1729
    The Triumph of MariusGiovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1729Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art