A capriccio with a palladian design for the Rialto with buildings at Vicenza

(Giovanni Antonio Canal (il Canaletto))

Like Canaletto, Guardi depicts Palladio’s bridge spanning the Grand Canal where the Ponte di Rialto, designed by Antonio dal Ponte, had been built in stone in 1588/91, following other less permanent bridges in the same location. Both painters maintain with varying degrees of success the topographical accuracy of both banks of the Grand Canal immediately preceding the actual bridge.

Said to have come from an English collection.
With Durlacher Brothers, London
Formerly Senatore Ettore Conti, Milan, 1925
Private Collection, Locarno, Switzerland

E. Modigliani, ‘Settecento Veneziano nelle Raccolte Private Milanesi’, in Settecento Veneziano, 1925, 44, repr. 49
E. Arslan, Art Bulletin, 1948, p.225 (repr)
F. Haskell, Patrons and Painters, New Haven and London, 1980, pp. 357-358
W. G. Constable, Canaletto, Oxford, 1962, Vol II, p. 405, no. 458, ill.
W. G. Constable/J.G. Links, Canaletto, Oxford, 1976, revised edition, p. 436, no. 458, ill.
W.G. Constable/J.C. Links, Canaletto, Oxford, 1989, p.436, no. 458, ill.
Related Literature:
T. Pignatti, ‘Il Ponte di Realto del Palladio e un disegno guardesco del Correr’, Bollottino dei Musei Civici Veneziani, 1958, no. 1, p.21
A. Morassi, Guardi, 1973, p.414, cat. 560, ill.; Vol. II, fig. 534
A. Morassi, Guardi, i dipinti, 1984, pl. 414, cat. 560, ills; Vol. II, fig. 534