# Capriccio: The Grand Canal, with an Imaginary Rialto Bridge and Other Buildings [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [CANALETTO]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 60 x 82 cm ## Commentary In this work and its companion picture \(Capriccio: A Palladian Design for the Rialto Bridge, also in Parma\) Canaletto created two of his most complex and intriguing capricci. He had already depicted an unrealised scheme for the Rialto Bridge, but in these works went one stage further and painted alternatives to the actual bridge surrounded by a sophisticated and extensive group of invented buildings. The bridge and extraordinary circular temple at the left appear to be almost entirely imaginary. Such spectacular flights of fancy may at root be based on reminiscences of details in works by Claude Lorraine \(1600-82\) and Giovanni Battista Piranesi \(1720-78\), but Canaletto has transformed possible sources of this type into a decorative creation all of his own. ## Related artworks - [A Regatta on the Grand Canal]() - [Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice \(detail\)]() - [Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice \(detail\)]() - [Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice]() - [Bacino di San Marco \(St Mark's Basin\)]() - [Campo San Rocco]() - [Campo Santa Maria Formosa]() - [Capriccio: a Palladian Design for the Rialto Bridge, with Buildings at Vicenza]() - [Capriccio of a Bridge Leading to a Fortress by the Venetian Lagoon]() - [Capriccio: River Landscape with a Column]() - [Capriccio: Ruins and Classic Buildings]() - [Capriccio: The Horses of San Marco in the Piazzetta]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()