The church of Santa Maria Formosa was founded in the seventh century on the site of a vision of a particularly beautiful Madonna; hence formosa, in the sense of ‘shapely’. The church has two façades, the main entrance out of sight in this view beyond the belltower, and a ponderous façade, seen here, added to the north transept at the start of the seventeenth century. Canaletto has taken a very wide-angle view from a first-floor window in the northern corner of the campo.