In 1727-28, the artist painted one of the last of his unpampered views. For once, ''The Stonemason's Yard,'' one of his two or three greatest works, does not focus on facades, but on the working space of a mason's yard strewn about with blocks of stone. The master mason carefully trims one, hammer in hand, while an apprentice does the rough work on a big long block. A miniature domestic drama is played out in the foreground. A housewife, her broom propped against the angle of a house, bends to attend to a screaming child of 4 or 5 that has just fallen on his behind, possibly pushed over by his elder sister who stands, firmly gripping a stick.
Light plays on the planks of a long lean-to at the right.
Modest white sheets hang down from the windows of the facade of a house to serve as blinds filtering the strong light. In the distance, across a canal, the tower of Santa Maria della Carita rises high in the sky. The 19th century must have loved it. But the difference with the 19th century is that realism does not come into it. But Canaletto was not interested in reality as such.