In the first section, history paintings documenting the familiar events of 18th-century Venice, such as masked carnival-goers at the Ridotto, the state-run gambling house, are executed in precise detail, according to the canons of the neoclassical current of the day, with none of the fanciful splashes of color in the artist's later work.

WSJ: Appreciating Francesco Guardi's Changing Genres/ A Guardi Retropsective at Museo Correr in Venice