# Piazza San Marco: the Clocktower [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [CANALETTO]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 52,7 x 70,5 cm ## Commentary Piazza San Marco: the Clocktower c. 1730 Oil on canvas, 52,7 x 70,5 cm Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City In the centre of the composition is the Torre dell'Orologio \(clocktower\) which was designed by Mauro Codussi \(1496-99\). Above the clock face is a sculpture of the Madonna, and on the very top of the tower are the two bronze figures, called the 'Mori', which strike the hours. On the left of the painting is the Loggetta at the base of the Campanile and at the right the façade of San Marco. The buildings are depicted accurately and in some considerable detail. Such precision contrasts with the liquid freedom of the application of paint used to place the cloud forms above. The figures in the foreground include oriental traders, shoppers, vagrants, servants, children and a youth who reclines nonchalantly in the sunshine. ## 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 Grand Canal, with an Imaginary Rialto Bridge and Other Buildings]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()