Canaletto (July)

Giovanni Antonio Canal, while celebrated for his ‘vedute’ of grandiose cityscapes and wealthy interiors, is a dedicated realist. For every extensive view of proud achievements Canaletto gives us a dry dock or stonemason’s yard to remind us how show-off came about: ‘Inner-City Carpark’, for example. Backsides of old houses have been part-demolished and blanked over in greys and whites. Zig-zag brickwork meets concrete slab in collages of architecture pushed aside for extra little spaces to accommodate the latest motorised vehicles. Typically, Canaletto plants observers, their presence in the bleak July sunlight reassurance of the human dimension in these oversized vistas.