Technical study and restoration of The Piazza San Marco in Venice by Canaletto

The technical study and restoration of Canaletto’s work The Piazza San Marco in Venice was made possible by the sponsorship of Artika and a crowdfunding campaign to which over six hundred people contributed.

The painting had been distorted by the oxidation of the varnish layer, creating a brownish-yellow film that obscured the colours and luminosity of the original.
The paint layers were somewhat unstable, as the materials had become brittle due to ageing. A full technical study was conducted to determine what type of intervention was needed. In the course of that intervention, we consolidated the paint layers and removed the layers of aged varnishes. Numerous areas of altered repainting, added in earlier restorations, were also removed.

The restoration work done over the course of 2019 recovered the original light, nuances and painstaking details, giving us a better idea of what the artist intended when he painted the different elements of the picture.