Venice: The Molo with the Prisons and the Doges' Palace

This 1743 Royal Collection view of the Molo with the Prisons and the Doge's Palace presents the southeastern face of Venice's governmental complex — the New Prisons (Prigioni Nuove), built by Antonio da Ponte (architect of the Rialto Bridge) between 1589 and 1614, connected to the Doge's Palace by the famous Bridge of Sighs that Canaletto often included in adjacent compositions. The Prisons were among the most notorious in Europe, housing political prisoners including Giacomo Casanova, who made his famous 1756 escape from the Piombi (the 'Leads,' the attic prison directly under the palace roof). The complex — palace, bridge, prison — embodied the combination of beauty and coercion that characterized Venetian republican government, and Canaletto's view renders this ambiguity without judgment, presenting the buildings with the same architectural admiration he brought to Palladio's churches. The 1743 date places this in the period of Canaletto's most refined handling, just before his departure for England; his technique at this moment is at its most assured and luminous.

The waterfront composition juxtaposes the Gothic Doge's Palace with the classical prison facade, illustrating the architectural evolution of Venetian civic building.