With his splendidly light-flooded vedute, Canaletto helped to shape the popular image of the topography and atmosphere of his native, town – Venice – in the eighteenth century. The painting shows the “Bacino di San Marco”, the basin in front of St. Mark’s Square by the Canal Grande. The view extends from the figures on the terraced bank, across water travelled by gondolas and larger vessels, to the striking architecture in the background, where the dome of Santa Maria della Salute towers up on the left, while the Campanile of San Marco forms the chief accent on the right. The unusual oval format gives the viewer the feeling of looking through a window onto a grandiosely staged landscape.