The Pier near the Mint with the Column of San Teodoro

This 1742 view of the pier near the Zecca (Mint) with the column of San Teodoro, companion to the San Marco column view and now also in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, completes a paired documentation of the Molo's twin columns from opposite directions. San Teodoro — the first patron saint of Venice before the Evangelist Mark's relics were stolen from Alexandria in 828 — was represented by a bronze statue of the soldier-saint standing on a crocodile atop the column, an image that had stood at Venice's ceremonial water entrance for centuries before gradually yielding in importance to the more prestigious Marcian symbol. The Zecca (Mint), designed by Jacopo Sansovino in the 1530s and adjacent to the Library of Saint Mark, processed the silver and gold of Venice's Mediterranean empire into coins that circulated from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Canaletto's paired column views of 1742, treated as companion pieces and now together in Milan, represent a focused documentary interest in a specific symbolic element of Venice's ceremonial waterfront rather than the panoramic approach of his typical vedute — evidence that his relationship with familiar subjects could still generate new compositional approaches after two decades.

The elongated waterfront composition creates strong horizontal perspective, with the succession of buildings along the Riva providing architectural rhythm. Boat traffic and figures animate the foreground waterway.