Canaletto “Architectural Caprice with Ruins and Buildings” Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan in Italy

Canaletto (October 28, 1697 — April 19, 1768) “Architectural Caprice with Ruins and Buildings”

Painting - Oil on Canvas (108.6 x91 cm) 1756

Canaletto, Architectural Caprice with Ruins and Buildings” Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan in Italy

Architectural Caprice This painting by Canaletto is an “Architectural Caprice” representing ruins and buildings that are both classical and ancient, such as the Triumphal Arch located exactly under the ruined arch.

Behind this triumphal arch, which recalls those of the Roman Forum, we can see a bell tower next to a cupola that could be the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

To the left of this ruined arch, Canaletto represented the remains of a funerary monument where a man bends down to read the text engraved on the headstone placed under the Renaissance sarcophagus.

“Caprices” were a genre appreciated by European collectors at the time of Canaletto.

Therefore, the latter responded to their request since his studio or imitators reproduced this view at least fifteen times.

Architectural Caprice