Fantastic Landscape

This imaginary landscape, or capriccio, is one of three in The Met collection from the castle of Colloredo di Monte Albano, near Udine. Guardi seems to have adjusted their sizes and shapes in the course of painting or immediately thereafter, probably in order to fit into decorative plaster surrounds. He composed these picturesque fantasies through combinations of rocky outcroppings, slanting tree trunks, and classical ruins, which are populated by fishermen and their families.