Veduta

View of New Market Square, Dresden, Bernardo Bellotto, 1750

A veduta (Italian for "view) is a classic panorama of a famous motif. Such view paintings acted as important records in an age before photography. People returning from the Grand Tour might want to buy a veduta of the Roman Forum or Venice.

Vedute paintings also served as tokens of civic pride to be displayed by the wealthy class, who also bought them in the form of engravings. Here's a painting from 1747 of "The River Thames from Richmond House" by Canaletto. Another example is the View of Delft by Vermeer.

A subcategory of this genre was called the veduta esatta – a view that's meant to be exact or accurate.

Another subcategory is the veduta ideata or capriccio, an idealized view with liberties taken from the actual scene. In this capriccio of Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini from 1735, famous monuments have been shuffled around to fit the main attractions of Rome onto a single canvas.