Bacino di San Marco from the Piazzetta

This large 1750 view of the Bacino di San Marco from the Piazzetta, now in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, was painted near the end of Canaletto's London sojourn and may represent a nostalgic return to Venetian material during his years of English residence. The composition — framing the great basin between the twin columns of San Marco and San Teodoro, with the Bucintoro moored at the Molo and San Giorgio Maggiore closing the distance — encapsulates the full symbolic geography of the Venetian Republic: the entrance columns, the state barge, the island basilica reflecting the mainland church of power. At 131 × 163 cm, this is among the larger Venetian canvases of his mature career, suggesting a major commission rather than a speculative production. The National Gallery of Victoria, opened in 1861 as Australia's first public art museum, built significant European old master holdings through nineteenth and early twentieth-century acquisitions, and this Canaletto is among the most important works in its Italian collection — a reminder that the global dispersal of European vedute extended to the southern hemisphere through the colonial networks that spread European collecting practices worldwide.

The twin columns frame the view across the basin, creating a monumental entry portal through which the distant Giudecca and San Giorgio are visible. The late handling maintains Canaletto's precision in the architectural elements.