The Island of San Michele, Venice
1770s
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
19 × 30 3/4 in. (48.3 × 78.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019
Accession Number
2019.141.13
Tags
Art Historical Context
Francesco Guardi’s *The Island of San Michele, Venice* captures a tranquil view of one of the city’s historic islands during the 1770s. Working in oil on canvas, Guardi presents the scene with characteristic lightness, showing towers rising above the water and small boats gliding across the lagoon. The modest scale of the painting—roughly 19 by 31 inches—invites close viewing, allowing visitors to appreciate the delicate play of light and reflection that defines his approach to Venetian subjects. As a leading painter of *vedute*, or view paintings, Guardi helped shape how 18th-century audienc...
About the Artist
Francesco Guardi · 1712–1793
Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (1712–1793) was born into a noble family of painters from Trentino who had settled in Venice. His father, Domenico Guardi, a minor painter trained in Vienna, died in 1716, leaving young Francesco to inherit the family workshop alongside his brothers Giovanni Antonio (Gian Antonio) and Niccolò, both artists, and sister Maria Cecilia, who married the renowned Giovanni Battis...