This painting by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (1697-1768), is in the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and is called “Capriccio: The Rialto Bridge and the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.”
The Italian word “capriccio” means whim or fancy. It could also be translated as “wait a minute, what the heck is San Giorgio Maggiore doing next to the Rialto Bridge?!?”
Canaletto was a native Venetian and while he painted many “straight up” scenes of his city, he sometimes moved things around a bit which is disconcerting to those of us who’ve been to Venice but just looks beautiful to those who haven’t. Canaletto’s paintings were much in demand by aristocratic British tourists and as a result, there are only a handful of his paintings in Venice but hundreds of them in the UK (the Queen herself has over 50 in the Royal Collection).
JG Links (author of Venice for Pleasure) was a Canaletto scholar and in that book, there are many reproductions of Canaletto’s works to show how much Venice has and hasn't changed since the 18th century. Since Canaletto painted before Napoleon came and wreaked havoc on the churches of Venice, his paintings are a place to see what some of the demolished churches looked like.
For example, this view shows what Piazza San Marco looked like when there was another church at the opposite end facing the Basilica. The church was San Geminiano, and it was torn down so Napoleon could have a palace with a ballroom (now the home of the Correr Museum).
And another capriccio, this one showing the horses removed from the loggia of the Basilica and instead, prancing in the Piazzetta. This one really bothers me. It just looks so wrong!