Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, The Pier towards Riva degli Schiavoni with the Column of Saint Mark, oil on canvas, before 1742 (inv. n. 1473)

The acquisition of the large canvas and its companion piece The Pier Towards the Mint with the Column of Saint Theodore in 1995 represented a leap forward in the quality of the works of the Venetian School held by the Art Gallery. The two views offer an insurmountable narrative synthesis and fix, in harmonious equilibrium, the virtuoso like representation of the lagoon city's famous monuments and the affable portrayal of a population busily going about their daily lives. To attain this level of realism, the artist relied only in part on the mechanical assistance of the camera obscura, managing to mentally reconstruct the scenes. The elegantly carved and gilded wooden frames have accompanied the canvases from the time of their commissioning in 1742. The perfect state of conservation and the certainty of its author solidly place the two city landscapes among the masterpieces conserved in the Sforza Castle.