View of the Naviglio Canal from the San Marco Bridge in Milan

When this work was shown as part of a large group of views at the Esposizione di Belle Arti di Brera of 1834, the critics were divided. One faction censured Canella’s use of cold, unnatural light, probably traceable to the 17th-century Dutch painting models the artist had assimilated during his extensive European travels undertaken from 1819 to 1832. This criticism should be considered in the light of the rivalry that existed between this artist who instigated the renewal of the perspective view through his particular sensibility to atmospheric and luministic values, and Giovanni Migliara, the consecrated master of urban painting and interpreter of the specific features of the Lombardy landscape. The stretch of the Naviglio canal running from the San Marco lock in the foreground to the Medici Bridge in the distance, was an important part of the Milanese waterway system which, already in the 19th century, ensured the circulation of goods and linked the city with nearby places. In this composition, Canella depicts with anecdotal relish the activities being carried out on and around the canal: the transportation of various types of marble and granite in the characteristic craft known as comballi; the washerwomen at work; the passersby coming and going. A bright, diffuse light pervades the scene, which is dominated by the brilliant blue of the sky dotted with white clouds, and of the limpid water. During the third and fourth decade of the century the Naviglio canals were an enormously popular subject with artists – from Giovanni Migliara to Luigi Bisi and Angelo Inganni (View of the Naviglio di S. Marco in Milan, Milan, coll. Banca Intesa) – and encouraged the development of the perspective view towards the depiction of contemporary life.