Despite his commitment to the rules of verisimilitude, however, Canaletto was not above embellishing his work through subtle geographic modifications. This view is of the Piazzetta, an area between the Piazza San Marco and the waterfront (known as the Molo). Proud of the fact that he was able to continue to paint in the last years of his life, he once boasted of this by inscribing a work from 1766 with the words, "at 68 years of age without Glasses. The show ends with a salutary video of the city’s recent floods and a powerful interactive tool that lets you see, from year to year, how the worst flooding in Venice’s history has hit in just the last few years. The "Capriccio" of the painting's title acts to inform the spectator that the painting is in fact a fantasy; albeit a fantasy grounded in reality.

Indeed, in her analysis of the painting, Kowalczyk suggested that Canaletto had established "a discourse on classical and Renaissance Venetian architecture that would guide his future creations. Everyday life continues around them: a mother rushes to comfort her crying child, watched by a woman on the balcony above. Bernardo would become his uncle's assistant for many years before branching out as an artist in his own right. G. Links who noted that while Canaletto had been "manifestly a great artist [and] recognized as such by some of the best-informed connoisseurs of his time," the artist's "immense success had been due to this appeal to the most unsophisticated taste," namely the tourist.Canaletto was inspired by the Roman vedutista Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and started painting the daily life of the city and its people. In the background, along the Tiber River, additional architectural structures are visible including the famous Trajan's Column and a barely visible dome from the Castel Sant'Angelo. As his reputation started to build, Canaletto came to the attention of three influential agents who helped promote and advance his artistic talent throughout Europe. The exhibition features some of Canaletto’s greatest masterpieces, including 'The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking West', about 1735 (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), The Stonemason’s Yard, about 1725 (The National Gallery, London), and four of his finest works from the Royal Collection.

This particular example is one of twelve compositions of the canal observed from the same vantage point. Remarkably, considering the dominant role of British patronage in this art form, 'Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals' is the first exhibition of its kind to be organised in the UK. The Royal Collection contains the world's finest group of paintings, drawings and prints by Venice's most famous view-painter, Canaletto (1697-1768). However, and while his work has been subject to some revision, the very fact that his work was most popular among tourists highlights the stuffy tone of "official" art histories which have tended to exclude his work from its canons.

Canaletto was a sophisticated and prolific Italian painter known primarily for his vivid topographies of Venice, Rome, and London. Trained in the Netherlands and based mostly in Rome, Vanvitelli is thought to have visited Venice in 1695, a trip resulting in some 40 views over the following decades. This proved to be a popular composition, and Canaletto and his studio pupils painted numerous versions during the late 1720s and mid-1730s. The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue presenting the latest scholarship on the complex stylistic relationships between Canaletto, his associates and rivals – the major practitioners of Venetian view painting in the 18th century. Canaletto's superb mastery of perspective, a technique fostered under the Renaissance tradition of his native Italy, is also in abundant evidence.

The camera obscura, in which a box allowed light to be admitted through a tiny pinhole onto an angled mirror, created an exact reflected image onto a surface from which one could trace. It proved to be a turning point in Canaletto's life since it was on this excursion that he took the decision to abandon theatrical design altogether. We look through an archway, stood in the shadows just behind a group of figures; it is as if we are walking past them along the colonnade. An in-depth look is provided of the conservation that was done by staff at the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge.First held in the early fourteenth century, the regatta usually took place on 2 February, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and coincided with the Carnival, one of the oldest festivals in Venice. Speaking of the Warwick sketches, meanwhile, Kowalczyk noted, "during the years in England, drawing rose to a new role" and more finely-honed drawings "properly finished with wash, began to appear. It is recognised as one of the finest pieces of Islamic inlaid metalwork in existence and the only surviving object of its kind.

Canaletto's early artworks were often painted in natural surroundings when the convention of the day dictated that paintings be completed in the studio. Bernardo Canal was a well-respected theatrical scene painter and, as expected, Canaletto and his elder brother, Christoforo, joined their father as his apprentices. Warwick Castle was a source of interest for Canaletto once he had left the confines of London and ventured further out into the English countryside. Venice is almost set up to be a theatrical city, with the Grand Canal as a stage, the buildings as the curtains and the architecture as the scenery. Once Bellotto struck out on his own, he tried to capitalize and profit from his uncle's name, often giving the false impression that he was in fact Canaletto.Only limited biographical details exist about Giovanni Antonio Canal, the artist better known as Canaletto. Ranelegh opened in 1742 as one of London’s most prestigious pleasure gardens, and its main attraction was this vast circular building in which fashionable society could attend balls and liste. Many of Canaletto’s greatest masterpieces are on display, including ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking West’ (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), The Stonemason’s Yard (The National Gallery, London), and four of the finest works from the Royal Collection. Presenting the most important set of paintings of Venice by Canaletto (1697 – 1768), which have left their home at Woburn Abbey – one of world’s most important private art collections – for the first time in more than 70 years.