During the 1700s, when rococo ruled Europe, Venice had become its royal city. Carpaccio (1455-1525) had combined the bustle of Venetian business with Renaissance grandeur; Titian (1477-1576) and Tintoretto (1518-1594) mastered the region's robust vitality. Marco Ricci (1676-1729) and
Canaletto (1697-1768) developed the vedute, or picture-postcard views, and the capriccio, or fantasy. But it was a dynasty of hard-working artists—the Guardis—that brought Venetian painting to its final fruition. Currently, a display of more than 200 oils and 800 graphics by the Guardis (see opposite page) has drawn 110,000 visitors to Venice's...