e campaniles he uses, making them tall and
slender or short and broad, as his picture requires. At one time he
produced some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr. Simonson, who
has written an admirable life of the painter, believes that the hand of
Canale is perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his natural
element, and he often became heavy in colour and handling. In 1782 he
undertook a commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a noted connoisseur
and inspector of State pictures, and had been appointed superintendent
in 1778 of an official studio for the restoration of old masters.

Edwards had important dealings with Guardi, who was directed to paint
four leading incidents in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of Pius
IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves had become indifferent patrons
of art, but Venice attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and
before the second half of the eighteenth century the export of old
masters had already become an established trade. There is no sign,
however, that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship till 1760,
extended any patronage to Guardi, though he enriched George III.'s
collection with works of the chief contemporary artists of Venice. It is
probable that Guardi had been warned against him by Canale and profited
by the latter's experience.

We can divide his work into three categories. 1. Views of Venice. 2.
Public ceremonies. 3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually that he
used the camera ottica, but though we may consider it probable, we
cannot trace the use of it in his works. He is not only a painter of
architecture, but pays great attention to light and atmosphere, and aims
at subtle effects; a transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the
sun pierces though the morning mists. His four large pendants in the
Wallace Collection show his happiest efforts; light glances off the
water and is reflected on the shadowed walls. His views round the Salute
bring vividly before us those delicious morning hours in Venice when the
green tide has just raced up the Grand Canal, when a fresh wind is
lifting and curling all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and when
the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as their light craft is caught
and blown from side to side upon the rippling water. The sky occupies
much of his space, he makes searching studies of it, and his favourite
effect is a flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass of clouds.
The line of t