Direct precedents for Canaletto's painting can be found in the work of the French landscape painter Claude Lorrain who made his name in Italy during the precedding (seventeenth) century. Lavishly decorated bissone (eight- or ten-oared boats) carry Venetian nobles, who recline on velvet cushions, and rowers in colourful uniforms. However, while visitors to Venice today are a world away from the Grand Tourists of the 18th century, Canaletto's influence has endured.

the fluid rounded strokes of the figures [that] contribute, together with the impressionistic application of the wash in the shadows cast by the trees, to the creation of a vibrant luminosity and atmospheric effect. These works were bought by the young George III in 1762 from Canaletto's agent and dealer Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice, along with the rest of Smith's huge collection.

The largest room of the exhibition celebrates the floating city’s dramatic festivals, regattas and ceremonies, a highlight being Canaletto’s 'The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day', about 1733–4 (Royal Collection). Canaletto was a sophisticated and prolific Italian painter known primarily for his vivid topographies of Venice, Rome, and London. In his book "Canaletto at Warwick", David Buttery describes how the Earl of Warwick, Lord Brooke, had undertaken a project to improve Warwick Castle and "the newly landscaped grounds designed by 'Capability' Brown". Many of Canaletto’s greatest masterpieces are on display, including ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking West’ (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), The Stonemason’s Yard (The National Gallery, London), and four of the finest works from the Royal Collection.

While Canaletto's later paintings and drawings would favor more naturalistic renderings of cityscapes, here we still see a clear foreshadowing of the vedute style for which he would become most well-known. The paintings were made in around 1740, when Canaletto produced his most commercially successful works. They have just attended a mass in honour of Saint Roch as part of the saint’s feast day, which was held in Venice every year on 16 August to celebrate his role in bringi.

From festive scenes to busy market squares, the 18th century artist captured the daily life of his native city in exquisite detail. In 2006–7, he curated the exhibition 'Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad' at the Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, and at Dulwich Picture Gallery. The Wedding of the Sea relates to a peace treaty of 1178 between the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the papacy, witnessed by Doge Sebastiano Ziani. Walls of monasteries and convents block off the view, dilapidated palaces skulk in the shade, blank old facades bake in the sun. We are honoured that this wonderful, unrivalled set of Canaletto paintings will come to the Holburne, the perfect setting for visitors to study the paintings closely in way that has never been possible before.