Floor plan

Style galleriesThe Italian Settecento

The Italian Settecento

Allegory of the Planets and Continents, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1752
MADONNA AND SAINTS
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.
Piazza San Marco, by Canaletto, late 1720s

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

Venetian views, Roman ruins and grand decoration in eighteenth-century Italy.

First room, north wall

  1. Allegory of the Planets and Continents, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1752
    Allegory of the Planets and ContinentsGiovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1752Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. MADONNA AND SAINTS
    Madonna and SaintsSebastiano Conca, ca. 1730Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

First room, south wall

  1. 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
  2. Piazza San Marco, by Canaletto, late 1720s
    Piazza San MarcoCanaletto, late 1720sCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Second room, south wall

  1. STUDY FOR PAINTING, MOUNT OLYMPUS
    Study for Painting, Mount OlympusVito D'Anna, 1750–60Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  2. WORKING PEASANT
    Working PeasantCarlo Marchionni, 1728–78Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. The Letter, by Pietro Longhi, 1746
    The LetterPietro Longhi, 1746Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  4. 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

Second room, north wall

  1. SKETCHES FOR A TABLET
    Sketches for a tabletCarlo Marchionni, ca. 1750Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  2. The Visit, by Pietro Longhi, 1746
    The VisitPietro Longhi, 1746Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  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
  4. 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

Third room, north wall

  1. 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
  2. The Triumph of Marius, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1729
    The Triumph of MariusGiovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1729Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, south wall

  1. 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
  2. Dozens of men with several women and a few children gather in pairs or small groups across a sun-drenched plaza in front of a domed church next to a long, pale pink building in this horizontal painting. The people’s faces and hands we can see have pale, peachy skin. The men wear hats and shin-length capes or jackets over stockings in tones of charcoal gray, olive green, butterscotch yellow, black, and brown. The women wear black capes covering their heads and long, full skirts. The ash-brown plaza has two zones where geometric patterns are picked out in a lighter, oatmeal brown. Three coral-red flagpoles are spaced along the center of the plaza parallel to the two buildings. Each flagpole rests on an olive-green base about a third of the height of the pole. Tables under open umbrellas clustered around the outer two flagpoles display piles of cloth, and a few people gather around the wares. The domed building extends into the scene from the left edge of the painting, and reaches about a third of the way across as it angles away from us. It has a central portal with nested arches, flanked to each side by a pair of slightly smaller, arched portals. Scenes against gold backgrounds appear in the archway of each of the five doors. There is a second level of arches above. The smaller arches to either side are decorated with more scenes of people against gold backgrounds. Four gold horses stand atop the central, lower arch, each with one front and one back hoof raised. The arch behind them is dim, the back side of a stained-glass window. The stone of the arches and front of the building are light brown. The upper arches are lined with pale, slate-gray spires and curling tracery. The three-story pink building sits close by to our right, extending into the distance on the same angle as the church, and as tall as its neighbor. The lowest level is a series of open, pointed arches. The second level is also a row of arches, but more closely spaced. People walk and stand under both covered walkways. The top half of the building has a carnation-pink façade with seven windows evenly spaced across its width. The central window is surrounded by carved stone ornament. Along the right edge of the painting and closer to us than the large buildings is the corner of a two-story building. The lower level is in shadow under a sloping awning, creating a merchant’s stall, and the second level has a rounded, arched window. One person stands at the front corner of the roof and looks down into the square. In the narrow gap between the row of buildings to our left and the smaller structure to our right is a winged lion atop a tall column. Beyond that is sparkling blue water with several masted ships and long, narrow gondolas. The sky above has thin white clouds against a pale blue sky. The artist signed the lower left, “A.C.F.”
    The Square of Saint Mark's, VeniceCanaletto, 1742/1744Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington