London National Gallery Top 20 15 Canaletto - The Stonemason's Yard [16 of 21]
Canaletto - The Stonemason's Yard, 1726-27, 124 x 163 cm. The Campo San Vidal square has been temporarily transformed into a workshop for repairing the nearby church. In the foreground we see the stonemasons at their work between blocks of marble, capitals, fragments and unworked blocks of hewn stone. In the middle ground, we look over the Grand Canal to the church of Santa Maria della Carita, set against a sky of silken blue. A mother, children, stonemasons working outdoors, gondelieri and passers-by are scattered here and there, so that the entire painting merges into a single line of action.