La Libreria a Venise
- Description
- Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768), known as Canaletto, etched this view of Venice featuring the Library of St. Mark and the Piazzetta in the 1740s. The Library was designed by Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570), who is credited with bringing the High Renaissance style to Venice. Many travelers were interested in Renaissance and Baroque architecture, as well as the ruins of ancient Rome. Canaletto's views appealed especially to wealthy 18th-century British visitors who came to Venice on the Grand Tour. Americans also visited Italy and collected prints to remind them of places seen.
- Canaletto specialized in paintings of Venice, many of which show well-known landmarks. He also made a series of etchings. Some depict actual sites, as this one does, while others show invented landscapes. The Museum's set of Canaletto's Venetian etchings was received as a gift from Mabel Brady Garvan, who, with her husband Francis P. Garvan, built an important collection of American paintings, furniture, and decorative arts that is now at the Yale University Art Gallery.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- print
- Object Type
- Etching
- graphic artist
- Canaletto
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- ink (overall material)
- Measurements
- sheet: 19.8 cm x 27.3 cm; 7 13/16 in x 10 3/4 in
- image: 14.2 cm x 20.7 cm; 5 9/16 in x 8 1/8 in
- Place Made
- Italia: Veneto, Venice
- ID Number
- GA*21847
- catalog number
- 21847
- accession number
- 257503
- subject
- Architecture
- Engineering, Building, and Architecture
- See more items in
- Culture and the Arts: Graphic Arts
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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