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“San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Armenian: Սուրբ Ղազարոս Կղզի, Surb Ghazaros Kghzi; English: Saint Lazarus Island) is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, lying immediately west of the Lido; completely occupied by a monastery that is the mother-house of the Mekhitarist Order, the island is one of the world’s foremost centers of Armenian culture.” (Wikipedia)
Capriccio, Horses of San Marco in Piazzetta
by Giovanni Antonio “Canaletto” Canal, 1743
(via booksnbuildings)
Canaletto, The Piazzetta, Venice, Looking North, early 1730s
From the Norton Simon Museum:
A native of Venice, Canaletto began his career as a scene painter in the Baroque theater, designing sets for operas. When he left the theater to take up landscape painting, he probably did more to popularize the image of Venice than any other eighteenth-century artist. Responding to the demand of the numerous visitors to Venice, he created an extraordinary number of view paintings, depicting the city from every possible vantage point. No painter of the time was more popular with the British nobility, and there was a steady flow of Canalettos to England. Canaletto had the unique ability to describe a scene faithfully and accurately and at the same time give it an evocative, personal, poetic quality. His linear precision is complemented by the effect of the bright sunlight, which accents architectural detail and filters into the cool, gray shadows.
Canaletto, Bacino di San Marco, Venice, c. 1738
From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:
Affluent eighteenth-century visitors to the enchanting city of Venice delighted in taking home painted topographical views known as vedute. Canaletto, one of the foremost vedute painters, here animates the entrance to Venice with cargo boats and gondolas that lead the eye back to precisely rendered buildings along the shore. Clearly identifiable are the gothic intricacies of the Doge’s palace at left and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore at right. Light from the cloudy sky, dappling the water with shadow, gives the view grandeur and unity.
"Now it is official and final. The project of Benetton for the reuse of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi prepared by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas will have to be completely revised in order to be realized."
