Luca Carlevarijs was the first to create vedutismo — topographical view painting — in 18th-century Venice. After painting many landscapes in his youth, he published a collection of 104 engravings in 1703 entitled Fabriche e Vedute di Venetia , the result of an intense scientific survey and his first foray into this new genre, which had hitherto been ignored by Venetian painters. From then on, he started producing a large collection of scenes of the city, first portraying the solemn entrances of foreign ambassadors who came to present their credentials to the Venetian government. He then went on to make countless pictures of the daily life of Venice, focusing mainly on Piazza San Marco, always crowded with a colourful crowd of traders, visitors, porters and working-class women.

Filippo Pedrocco