The Ruins of the old Kreuzkirche, Dresden

The jagged remains of a church tower dominate this scene, its stonework split open like a broken tooth against the sky. This is the old Kreuzkirche in Dresden, painted by Bernardo Bellotto around 1765. The tower had been damaged during the Prussian bombardment of the city in the Seven Years' War, and by the time Bellotto set up his easel, workers were pulling it down piece by piece. You can see them clambering over the rubble mound and hauling stone across the square below, going about the slow business of clearing away what was left.

Bellotto was the nephew and student of the famous Venetian painter Canaletto, and he even used his uncle's name at times while working across Europe. He shared the family talent for painting cities with almost photographic precision, right down to the cracks in the plaster and the shopfronts lining the street on the right. What sets this picture apart from his sunnier Venetian views is its subject. Rather than showing a proud landmark, he recorded a wound in the city, a building caught halfway between standing and gone. The tidy row of houses on the right, still whole and busy with life, makes the shattered tower feel even more stark by comparison.