In 1763, Canaletto was accepted as a member of the Venetian Academy. It was the custom for an artist to present the Academy with a painting after he was admitted, and Canaletto chose to paint what would be his last capriccio scene.[1] It is called Capriccio: a Colonnade opening on to the Courtyard of a Palace, dated 1765 (fig. 15). The scene is entirely invented and the architecture creates a wonderfully effective contrast between diagonal, vertical, and horizontal lines. Especially beautiful is the intricate detailing along the shafts of the columns. The picture is a charming representation of a fantastic space, comprised of whimsical architecture and delicate detailing. The light highlights the left half of the picture, while the right remains shaded underneath the building. Although the architecture dominates the painting, Canaletto still includes a slice of his trademark bright blue sky and some green foliage. For this very important painting Canaletto wanted to show the Academy all his skill and inventiveness as a painter. Even though landscape and city scenes were not highly regarded as subjects by the Academy—history subjects and portraits were considered more prestigious for painters—Canaletto showed that his capriccio views were not just simple renderings of the world around him, but imaginative scenes that were more beautiful in composition and details than actual life. Canaletto showed with this painting that he was worthy of being a member of the Academy.

His last dated work is a drawing, completed 1766, titled San Marco: the Crossing and North Transept, with Musicians Singing (fig. 16). At the bottom of the paper, he wrote with pride, “I Zuane Antonio da Canal, made the present drawing of the musicians who

sing in the ducal church of San Marco at the age of 68, without spectacles in the year 1766.”[2] It is clear that he has lost none of his abilities as an artist, despite the advanced age he acknowledges in his quote. In a painting done of the exact same view thirty-six years earlier, San Marco (An Evening Service) (fig. 17), he filled the composition with people, unlike in the drawing, where he has carefully shown just a few people, including a beggar with a dog and other figures.[3] The chorus sings enthusiastically while people below listen to them and pray, and the sun illuminates the interior of the basilica, touching upon the chorus, the hanging cross, and the crowd of people. In the later drawing, Canaletto takes more advantage of the open space, and does not choose to create such an upward composition. Instead, he focuses more on the figures as individuals and the details of the architectural decorations. Although the drawing is not completed in the same fashion as the painting, Canaletto still plays with the proportions of the composition, which is clearest in the differences in the height and width of the space in

the two images. These two comparisons represent Canaletto’s lifelong battle in deciding how to portray his scenes. They are clear examples of his early versus his later styles and show how his style developed over the course of his career. What is “true” may not be visible in either work, but Canaletto still used his own inventiveness in completing both of them.[4]

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