ANTONIO KANALETTO “The Rialto Bridge, Venice, from the South”

[Anatol]

The full name of the painting: "Rialto Bridge, Venice, from the south from the landing of the Prince of Saxony during his visit in 1740".
Among the most recognizable sights in Venice, the Rialto Bridge was a natural subject for Canaletto. It would have certainly had a strong appeal for his clientele, who, by the late 1720s, had become more and more international, and desirous of classic views of the city. As the only span across the Grand Canal, the Rialto was not only of vital commercial importance, but it was also a masterpiece of Renaissance engineering in a city filled with architectural treasures. It replaced a series of previous wooden iterations; one built in 1458 is depicted in glorious detail by Vittore Carpaccio and featured a drawbridge apparatus to allow for the passage of larger boats.1 After numerous collapses and other issues with these earlier structures, a permanent stone bridge was commissioned from the appropriately named Antonio da Ponte, whose soaring single arch design was chosen over submissions by Andrea Palladio, Jacopo Sansovino and possibly even Michelangelo himself. Although his contemporaries were dubious of Da Ponte’s bridge, it has endured for over 400 years despite predictions to the contrary, much like the city of Venice itself.
In 1727/29 Canaletto produced the stunning Rialto Bridge from the South in the collection of the Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall. That painting is on the rare support of copper. Due in at least some measure to the unusual technique, it also evokes a different mood, with a more highly keyed tonality and a steeply angled arrangement of the architectural elements.
Close-up perspectives of the Rialto Bridge continued to provide a subject for Canaletto in subsequent years, and he turned to it during different moments in his career and in different media.
Guinea-Bissau 2003: 450FCFA.
Source: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction ... o-venice-a.