Capriccio with St. Paul's and Old London Bridge

Antonio Joli

Oil on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Elegant figures in silk gowns and powdered wigs stroll beneath a grand triumphal arcade, framing a dreamlike view of the Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral rising in the hazy distance. Antonio Joli, an Italian vedutista celebrated for his theatrical capriccios, fused real London landmarks with invented classical architecture to create a fantastical hybrid of fact and fancy. The loose, atmospheric brushwork and warm golden light reveal his training in Venetian view painting and his years designing stage sets, lending the scene a cinematic grandeur. This sweeping panorama of 18th-century London, reimagined through an Italianate lens, brings old-world romance and architectural splendor into any room.