San Marco Square from the Clock Tower Facing the Procuratie Nuove 1740

Curator: Welcome. Today, we’re looking at Bernardo Bellotto’s "San Marco Square from the Clock Tower Facing the Procuratie Nuove," created around 1740. Editor: It feels almost like a stage, doesn't it? The architecture looms, but these little figures going about their day seem to almost float across the square. The sky seems particularly alive—vast and open above them all. Curator: Bellotto, working primarily in oil paint, was really concerned with topographical accuracy. He meticulously rendered the architecture of Venice, and we can appreciate this artwork as an urban landscape painting offering insight into the structures shaping public life and commerce in eighteenth-century Venice. Editor: So it’s really about documenting space and the means by which this city functions—this massive square seems central to its economic circulation and social dynamics, where identities meet through trade, labor, and just basic forms of gathering. The buildings themselves feel like monumental containers and commodities; Bellotto clearly outlines their sheer volume! Curator: Absolutely, the painting becomes a record, even a celebration of Venetian craft and labor in the structures and material transactions we're witnessing. These edifices certainly speak to the prowess of builders, merchants and the aristocratic and ecclesiastical powers managing Venice. Editor: It makes me wonder, though, about those who are excluded from this particular depiction of Venetian power—where are the marginalized voices within such a constructed scene of the city’s material glory? Are their shadows absent, or are we overlooking them? Curator: That is an excellent question, the painting could certainly also act as an entry point to explore inequality. Still, as an artifact, this vista and painting are precious materials from a pivotal historical juncture. Editor: Seeing this, I'm now very keen to reflect further upon how cityscapes, through their construction, actively engage in creating, perpetuating, and sometimes obscuring hierarchical arrangements. Thanks for sharing that moment of reflection! Curator: My pleasure, it seems that these vistas always make us question urban dynamics, perhaps even our own!