Piazza San Marco in Venice in the moonlight 

Ippolito Caffi painted this view of Venice’s Piazza San Marco at night, though we don’t know exactly when. The image is infused with nostalgia, recalling Venice’s glorious past as a major European power and center of trade. Caffi gives us a carefully constructed view of a city both ancient and modern. Dominating the composition on the left is the Doge’s Palace, which was the seat of Venetian government for centuries. The winged Lion of St. Mark, Venice’s symbol, is silhouetted against the sky on its column. Meanwhile, the figures strolling the piazza in the foreground evoke a modern, cosmopolitan city. Caffi's Venice is self-consciously picturesque and is an aesthetic product carefully tailored to travelers’ expectations. To understand this painting better, historians might look at travel guides and other images of Venice that circulated in Europe at the time. These sources can tell us a great deal about the role of art in shaping cultural perceptions and even promoting tourism.