The Campo di SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice
1743/1747
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 70.8 x 111 cm (27 7/8 x 43 11/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CIS-B
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Widener Collection
Accession Number
1942.9.7
Art Historical Context
Bernardo Bellotto’s *The Campo di SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice* (1743–1747) captures one of the city’s most vibrant public squares with remarkable clarity and light. The oil-on-canvas view centers on the imposing Gothic church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the celebrated equestrian monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni, while everyday Venetian life unfolds around them—figures crossing the campo, vendors, and gondolas along the adjacent canal. At roughly 71 × 111 cm, the modest scale invites intimate viewing, drawing visitors into the scene as if they were standing within the square themselves. Bell...
About the Artist
Bernardo Bellotto · 1722–1780
Bernardo Bellotto (1722–1780) was an Italian painter of exceptional gifts who carried the art of the veduta — the precisely observed topographical view — from Venice across the courts of northern Europe, leaving behind some of the most detailed and haunting urban panoramas in the history of Western painting. Born in Venice, he was the nephew and pupil of the great vedutista Giovanni Antonio Canal,...