Bernardo Canal, only a decade younger than the first Venetian vedute painter Luca Carlevarijs (1663-1730), was the father of his famous son, Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto. It is presumed that Canaletto was trained by his father, who specialised in painting both theatrical scenery and vedute, and to whose style some of Canaletto's earliest works come so close as to cause confusion over their authorship. Bernardo's paintings are distinctive through his use of a dark ground - evident in the present pair - and a heavier modelling of the architecture and figures; compositionally, most of his paintings are related to those of his son, and it is generally understood that the designs are the invention of Canaletto.
The view of the entrance to the Grand Canal, looking west, with the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute, exists in numerous versions by Canaletto himself and others. The present composition, with the truncated view of the Punta della Dogana, comes fairly close to Canaletto's painting from the Blaffer Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (fig. 1), though there are numerous differences in the viewpoints, staffage and vessels.
The depiction of the bend made by the Canale di Santa Chiara at the Fondamenta della Croce is found in one of the series of twenty-four views of Venice by Canaletto at Woburn Abbey, as well as in versions in the Wallace Collection, London (fig. 2)2, and in a private collection, London (which formerly belonged to the Harvey Trustees), though again, there are a number of differences between these and the present work.
