Floor plan

Time and place18th-century Italy

18th-century Italy

The Triumph of Marius, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1729
Piazza San Marco, by Canaletto, late 1720s
WORKING PEASANT
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.
We look slightly down across a sun-drenched plaza with people scattered among ruins, buildings, and around a free-standing column in this vertical landscape painting. The people we can see have light skin. Towering trees with celery, sage, and forest-green leaves frame a small plaza paved with flax-colored stones. A tree to our right almost reaches the top of the painting, and a shorter tree in front of it has toppled onto the plaza. To our left, in the lower corner, a man sits behind a shadowy balustrade, looking down. In the lower center of the painting, a man walks toward us, holding a basket over one arm and dead poultry in the other hand, and a dog sits nearby. Slightly farther back is a tall stone column with a door in its base and a statue on top. A woman wearing a red shirt and blue skirt sits on a step in front of the door. Along the left side, the plaza gives way to a tree-lined, dirt road that meanders toward a stone arch in the middle distance, and to a cluster of low buildings beyond. Two towers catch the light, one with a slate-blue dome and the other with a peach-colored steeple. Farther back from the buildings is a dark line of trees at the base of a steep green hill dotted with groves of trees, which rises high over the plaza below. Another building complex, glowing in warm tones of straw yellow, sits at its top. Small dots of red, white, and blue suggest a handful of people making their way up the hill’s wide path. A river with moss-green water pouring over a dam extends from the lower right corner into the distance along the right edge of the painting. Near the column, a man fishes at the water’s edge. The water winds back to a row of silvery-gray buildings in the far distance. Several people in red, yellow, or white, tiny in scale, dot the riverbanks and cross the bridge. A screen of thin, pale pink clouds float across the light blue sky.
Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti, by Giovanni Paolo Panini, ca. 1756–58

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. The Triumph of Marius, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1729
    The Triumph of MariusGiovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1729Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. Piazza San Marco, by Canaletto, late 1720s
    Piazza San MarcoCanaletto, late 1720sCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. WORKING PEASANT
    Working PeasantCarlo Marchionni, 1728–78Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

First room, south 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. We look slightly down across a sun-drenched plaza with people scattered among ruins, buildings, and around a free-standing column in this vertical landscape painting. The people we can see have light skin. Towering trees with celery, sage, and forest-green leaves frame a small plaza paved with flax-colored stones. A tree to our right almost reaches the top of the painting, and a shorter tree in front of it has toppled onto the plaza. To our left, in the lower corner, a man sits behind a shadowy balustrade, looking down. In the lower center of the painting, a man walks toward us, holding a basket over one arm and dead poultry in the other hand, and a dog sits nearby. Slightly farther back is a tall stone column with a door in its base and a statue on top. A woman wearing a red shirt and blue skirt sits on a step in front of the door. Along the left side, the plaza gives way to a tree-lined, dirt road that meanders toward a stone arch in the middle distance, and to a cluster of low buildings beyond. Two towers catch the light, one with a slate-blue dome and the other with a peach-colored steeple. Farther back from the buildings is a dark line of trees at the base of a steep green hill dotted with groves of trees, which rises high over the plaza below. Another building complex, glowing in warm tones of straw yellow, sits at its top. Small dots of red, white, and blue suggest a handful of people making their way up the hill’s wide path. A river with moss-green water pouring over a dam extends from the lower right corner into the distance along the right edge of the painting. Near the column, a man fishes at the water’s edge. The water winds back to a row of silvery-gray buildings in the far distance. Several people in red, yellow, or white, tiny in scale, dot the riverbanks and cross the bridge. A screen of thin, pale pink clouds float across the light blue sky.
    English Landscape Capriccio with a ColumnCanaletto, c. 1754Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti, by Giovanni Paolo Panini, ca. 1756–58
    Scalinata della Trinità dei MontiGiovanni Paolo Panini, ca. 1756–58Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Second room, south wall

  1. 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
  2. A Young Woman Buying a Pink from a Young Man, by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, c. 1740
    A Young Woman Buying a Pink from a Young ManGiovanni Battista Piazzetta, c. 1740Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. STUDY FOR A PAINTING ON THEME OF CALLISTO
    Study for a Painting on Theme of CallistoFilippo Falciatore, ca. 1750Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  4. 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

Second room, north wall

  1. 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
  2. A work made of oil on canvas.
    Antiochus Yearning for StratoniceStefano Pozzi, c. 1740Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. Study for "The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian" (for the Augustinian monastery at Diessen, Germany), by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1739
    Study for "The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian" (for the Augustinian monastery at Diessen, Germany)Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1739Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. The Glorification of the Barbaro Family, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, ca. 1750
    The Glorification of the Barbaro FamilyGiovanni Battista Tiepolo, ca. 1750Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A pastel drawing of woman in blue and pink dress with blue parrot.
    A Young Lady with a ParrotRosalba Carriera, c. 1730Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons), by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, ca. 1749–50
    The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons)Giovanni Battista Piranesi, ca. 1749–50Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art