The Doge's Palace, Venice

This view runs along the Molo, the waterfront on Saint Mark's basin, with the long Gothic flank of the Doge's Palace on the right and, beyond it, the Library and the dome of Santa Maria della Salute. Canaletto painted it around 1725 or 1726, early in his career.

The façade he recorded so carefully had nearly been lost. In 1577 a fire swept through the palace and destroyed the hall of the Great Council, which lies behind the tall windows on this side, together with paintings by Bellini, Carpaccio and Titian. Andrea Palladio, the most admired architect of the day, proposed rebuilding in the classical style. Venice chose to restore the old Gothic building, and that is the palace in this picture. The canvas is under a metre wide, and the gallery bought it in 1871 from Baron Sallier de la Tour.