The Campanile of San Marco, the highest point in Venice, was struck by lightning on 23 April 1745, damaging the north-east angle. Repair work was quickly carried out, and here Canaletto shows a workmen’s cradle suspended from scaffolding erected in the bell-storey. His inscription states: ‘On 23 April 1745, the day of St George the Knight, a thunderbolt struck the Campanile of San Marco’. The drawing is unusual in recording an actual event, and in depicting the Campanile in its correct, rather massive proportions.