The Rialto, from the North

In 1725 there was exactly one way to cross the Grand Canal on foot, and this is it. The stone Rialto bridge, finished in 1591 on a single arch with two rows of shops along it, stayed the only crossing until an iron bridge went up at the Accademia in 1854, so much of the city's daily traffic funnelled through here. Canaletto shows it from the north. The bridge is flanked by the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the warehouse and lodgings of the German merchants, and by the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, seat of the Republic's financial officers. The gallery points out how freely he stages the scene, throwing shafts of light across some façades and sinking others in shadow to heighten the drama. That theatrical lighting belongs to his early years. The Bucintoro in the same room, painted some 15 years later, is bathed in a far more even light.