Gate to the Arsenal in Venice

After the death of Canaletto (1768), Guardi became the leading painter in Venice of vedute or cityscapes. Unlike his older fellow painter, Guardi dispensed with pedantic representation of perspective and precise details. His concern was rather for employing the loosely dabbed brush to create merging effects of light, air and movement in depicting the city of Venice. His cityscapes combine colourfulness and rococo atmosphere with something approaching an impressionistic mode of seeing and painting. Guardi was criticised by his peers for this novelty.