What is it about?
Three aspects of perspective are examined: 1) perspective lines and vanishing points of buildings and the pavement, 2) sizes of buildings and human figures, and 3) direction of shadows on the Piazza. Nine paintings are analysed that Canaletto painted from similar, high viewing points.
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Why is it important?
Canaletto painted the Piazza San Marco realistically but not with photographic accuracy. It shows that Canaletto cannot have used a camera obscura. Human figures are way too large in all the paintings. A few paintings show curious errors in the number of vanishing points and the direction of shadows.
Perspectives
The analyses show that Canaletto was a master in perspective. However, he did not paint photorealisticaly. As a previous study showed, he painted perspective close to how we experience perspective in the natural world (Erkelens, C. J. (2016). Equidistant intervals in perspective photographs and paintings. i-Perception, 7(4), 1–14).
Professor Casper Johannes Erkelens
Utrecht University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Perspective on Canaletto’s Paintings of Piazza San Marco in Venice, Art & Perception, March 2020, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/22134913-20191131.
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