107 the middle and background shows the Zecca (Mint) and the cupolas of Santa Maria delle Salute at the mouth of the Canal Grande. Luca Carlevarijs depicted festive events from this viewing position in a number of paintings, all of them compositionally similar. The first canvas records the reception of the French ambassador, the Marquis de Pomponne, on 10 May 1706 (today in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, inv. no. C 1612). A detailed report survives showing that the painter rendered the ceremony and its protagonists in that work with precision. In the Dresden picture, Colloredo is recognisable: wearing a black cloak, he stands in the midst of the procession of attendees alongside a representative of the Venetian Order of the Golden Stole. RE Literature: Exh. cat. Padua 1994, p. 242, no. 65; exh. cat. Dresden 2008, p. 84, no. 14; Tipton 2010, pp. 28–35, Succi 2015, pp. 148f., no. 15. · 3 · Antonio Canal The Grand Canal in Venice with the Rialto Bridge 1724 Oil on canvas, 146 × 234 cm Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, gal. no. 581 First mentioned in inventory of 1754 This lively view of the Grand Canal dates from 1724, and may have been commissioned by the Imperial Ambassador Johann Baptist von Colloredo-Waldsee. Antonio Canal (Canaletto) could have sketched the composition from the piano nobile of the Palazzo Garzoni. The view leads the eye deep into the urban space, and all the way to the Rialto Bridge. Truncated on the far left is the Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza, while on the right, the Palazzo Corner Spinelli is the first of a sequence of facades that line the Canal Grande. The barges and gondolas on the water are depicted in impressive detail. They suggest that the canal was not only Venice’s most important traffic artery, but also the nucleus of life for the city as a whole, as illustrated by the diversity of activities in which accessory figures are engaged. Also visible as reflections on the water is the city’s architecture, which still exerts a morbid charm on visitors today. Mentioned in the Dresden inventory of 1754 is a pendant to this veduta, so, as with many works by Canal, we must assume the existence of a counterpart. A highly likely candidate is The Bacino of San Marco, Venice, Seen from the Giudecca, almost identical in format, and said to show Colloredo entering the Doge’s Palace in 1726. It is preserved today in Upton House, Warwickshire (inv. no. NT 446806). RE Literature: Woermann 1887, p. 200; Constable 1976, vol. 2, p. 288, no. 208; exh. cat. Dresden 2008, p. 72, no. 3. · 3 ·
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