“Canal Grande da palazzo Balbi” (Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi) is a masterpiece from 1728 by the famous Venetian landscape artist Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto. The painter is able to portray the urban landscape of Venice in meticulous detail, using a precise, clearly defined light able to render every detail bright and luminous.
An interesting fact: Canaletto often used a camera obscura, a sort of forerunner of the modern-day camera. The painter placed a cloth over his head to shut out the light and trace the outline of the buildings projected on a sheet through a lens inserted in a box placed on a tripod. The drawings were thus transferred onto the canvas.
