Palladio and Canaletto in Venice

Between Reality and Imagination

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between architecture, representation and perception through the peristyle of the Convento della Carità in Venice, designed by Andrea Palladio and later depicted by Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto. It compares three levels of interpretation: the project published in I quattro libri dell’architettura (1570), the building as constructed and its trans position in Canaletto’s painting. The Carità holds a special place in Palladio’s Venetian work, as it reinterprets the Vitruvian Corinthian atrium and transfers models of classical antiquity to the lagoon, although the building phase already departed significantly from the original design. Through geometric and perspectival analysis of the painting, supported by surveys and digital reconstructions, the study identifies numerous discrepancies among painting, project and existing building. Canaletto’s view occupies an intermediate position between a topographical view and an architectural capriccio, presenting an architecture that appears plausible yet does not exist. The comparison between project, construction and representation thus opens a broader reflection on the interpretative nature of every architectural image and on the dialogue between truth and invention that runs through the work of both Palladio and Canaletto.