The Stonemason's Yard

A working campo in Venice — the Campo San Vidal, filled with stone for the rebuilding of its church — looking across the Grand Canal to Santa Maria della Carità.

The real place in the painting

campiello San Vidal

The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.

The Stonemason's Yard — at a glance

Artist: Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768)
Year: c. 1725
Movement: Venetian view painting (veduta)
Place: Campo San Vidal, Grand Canal, Venice, Italy
Viewpoint: The campo looking across to Santa Maria della Carità — campo and canal survive; Carità is now the Accademia
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: c. 124 × 163 cm
Now at: The National Gallery, London

Overview

The Stonemason's Yard is generally considered Canaletto's finest painting, made about 1725, early in his career and before he settled into producing bright, polished views for tourists. It shows an ordinary Venetian square turned into a temporary stone-working yard, with masons at their blocks, washing hung out, women at their doors and a child who has fallen over in the foreground. It is oil on canvas, about 124 by 163 cm, and it hangs in the National Gallery, London.

Its real title is not original; it has been called The Stonemason's Yard since at least the nineteenth century.

The story behind the painting

Scholarship The stone and huts in the campo were there for a real project: the rebuilding of the façade and campanile of the church of San Vidal (San Vitale), which faces onto the square. Canaletto seems to have painted the scene for a Venetian patron rather than for the foreign market, which may be why it is so unusually direct and domestic.

Where was The Stonemason's Yard painted?

Scholarship The view looks south-west across the Grand Canal from the Campo San Vidal, on the San Marco side, near where the wooden Accademia bridge now stands. On the far bank are the church and Scuola of Santa Maria della Carità, whose buildings have housed the Gallerie dell'Accademia since the early nineteenth century; the Carità's campanile, seen here, collapsed in 1744 and was never rebuilt. The campo itself, the canal and the far-bank buildings are all still there and the viewpoint is easily found.

Real placecampiello San Vidal

ViewpointThe real place in the painting

Coordinates45.43194, 12.32917

Original now atNational Gallery, on public display

How we know

A real Venetian campo, with Santa Maria della Carità across the Grand Canal.

The real place in the painting Current museum

What is in the painting?

The foreground is the rough, unpaved campo, littered with dressed and rough stone blocks, a wooden shed and a well-head. Masons work at the blocks; a broom leans; a cockerel pecks. At the lower left a small child has fallen and is crying, a woman rushing to it while another leans from a balcony above. Beyond the near buildings the Grand Canal crosses, with gondolas, and on the far side the tall brick church of the Carità and its leaning campanile under a sky of broken cloud.

Look closely

The dressed stone

Rough and finished blocks lie all over the unpaved campo, with masons working at them.

The fallen child

At the lower left a small child has tumbled over and cries; a woman runs to help, another leans from a balcony.

The Carità campanile

The tall brick bell tower across the canal — it collapsed in 1744 and was never rebuilt.

The washing and the well-head

Laundry hangs between the houses and a stone well-head stands in the square — ordinary Venetian life.

The weather sky

A big sky of broken cloud, unusually naturalistic for Canaletto.

Analysis

Composition & perspective

The messy working campo fills the near ground; the canal and the church are set back as a calm, sunlit backdrop.

Scholarship Canaletto plays a cluttered, shadowed, closely observed foreground against an airy, sunlit distance, with the campanile of the Carità as the main vertical. The perspective is gentle rather than showy; the many small human incidents scatter the eye across the square before it settles on the church.

Colour and light

Warm browns and ochres of stone and brick, cool grey-green water, and a large, moving, cloud-filled sky.

Scholarship The tonal range is broad and natural — deep shadow among the stone huts, full sun on the far campanile — and the sky is unusually weather-filled for Canaletto, closer to Dutch landscape than to his later postcard blue.

History & provenance

The painting was in the Beaumont collection in England by the early nineteenth century and was among the founding gifts to the National Gallery, London, in 1823–28.

Sources

The National Gallery, London — collection entry for Canaletto, ‘Venice: Campo San Vidal and Santa Maria della Carità (‘The Stonemason's Yard’)’ (c. 1725; oil on canvas, c. 124 × 163 cm)
J. G. Links, ‘Canaletto’ (Phaidon)

Frequently asked

Is the ‘stonemason's yard’ a real place?

Yes. It is the Campo San Vidal in Venice, on the San Marco side of the Grand Canal near the present Accademia bridge. The stone and huts were there for the rebuilding of the church of San Vidal that faces the square.

Can you visit it?

Yes. The campo, the Grand Canal and the far-bank buildings are all still there. The church across the water is Santa Maria della Carità, which has housed the Gallerie dell'Accademia since the early 1800s; its leaning campanile, shown in the painting, fell in 1744 and was never rebuilt.

What is happening in the foreground?

The square has been taken over as a temporary yard for dressing stone. Masons work at the blocks; at the lower left a small child has fallen and is crying while two women react.

Why is this painting so highly regarded?

It is unusually direct and unpolished for Canaletto — a real working square with weather in the sky and domestic life going on — probably because it was painted for a Venetian patron rather than for the tourist market.

Where is the painting now?

In the National Gallery, London, since the 1820s.