The painting shows a view from Campo San Vidal over the Canale Grande at the Church and Scuola Santa Maria della Càrita.

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The Church tower (campanile) visible in Canaletto’s ‘The Stonemason’s Yard‘ collapsed in 1741. The Church Santa Maria della Càrita itself is being used as an art gallery (Gallerie dell’Accademia) showing paintings by Titian, Bellini, Giorgione, Tintoretto, and also Canaletto. The stone mason’s yard shown in the painting was most probably not a permanent installation in Canaletto’s time but a part of the building site during the restoration of the Church of San Vidal. The bridge crossing the Canal visible in the contemporary map is new (1).

References

(1) Bomford, D., Roy, A. ‘Canaletto’s “Stonemason’s Yard” and “San Simeone Piccolo”‘. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 14, pp 34–41.

Quote from the catalog of the exhibition “Canaletto” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1989-90 (2):

“Venice is relatively little changed since the eighteenth century, but many
who look at this famous picture will find that at first sight its subject seems
unfamiliar. The viewpoint is from Campo S. Vitale – or S. Vidal – looking
across the Grand Canal to the church and scuola of Sta. Maria della Carita.
The church was secularized in Napoleonic times and the complex is now
mainly occupied by the galleries of the Accademia. The facade of the church,
only the top of which can be seen in this picture, is shown in its entirety in
one of Stefano Conti’s paintings (cat. no. u), and some of the crockets visible
in the earlier view are missing from this one. The campanile (tower) of the Carita
toppled in the 1740s. The entrance to what was then the scuola and is now
the museum was replaced later in the eighteenth century, and the building
adjoining it to the right was torn down. The Accademia bridge now spans
the canal at this point. The house at the left was destroyed to make way for
the garden of Palazzo Franchetti, or Cavalli. The houses to the right and the
wellhead can still be identified, and the bell tower in the background to
the right of center is that of S. Trovaso.
There is no record as to how the picture acquired the title by which it is
universally known, and it is unlikely that there was ever a stone yard in the
campo: probably the stone that is shown there was used for the rebuilding
of the church of S. Vitale.”

 

References

(1) Bomford, D., Roy, A. ‘Canaletto’s “Stonemason’s Yard” and “San Simeone Piccolo”‘. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 14, pp 34–41.

(2) Katharine Baetjer, J. G. Links, Canaletto, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), 1989, pp. 142-144.

The following pigment analysis is based on the technical examination of the painting at the National Gallery London (1).

1 Blue sky: Prussian blue mixed with lead white painted over a cool gray underlayer consisting of lead white and charcoal black

2 Grass: green earth, Naples yellow, yellow ochre, and a little lead white

3 Water in the canal: green earth combined with a little white and with variable amounts of Prussian blue

4 Yellow-brownish coat of the stonemason: pure Naples yellow

5 The terracotta coloured facade of the building: lead white, red ochre, orange ochre, Naples yellow, red lake, and some black.

References

(1) Bomford, D., Roy, A. ‘Canaletto’s “Stonemason’s Yard” and “San Simeone Piccolo”‘. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 14, pp 34–41.

(1) Bomford, D., Roy, A. ‘Canaletto’s “Stonemason’s Yard” and “San Simeone Piccolo”‘. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 14, pp 34–41

(2) Octave Uzanne, Canaletto, Parkstone International, 2012.

(3) Katharine Baetjer, J. G. Links, Canaletto, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), 1989. Available as pdf from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

(4) Michael Helston, Second Sight. Canaletto: The Stonemason’s Yard. Guardi: The Piazza San Marco. National Gallery 1982.