The Piazza San Marco is dominated by the Basilica of San Marco with its domes and gleaming mosaics and the campanile (bell tower). Guardi may have used a camera ottica, an optical viewing box in which mirrors reflected the scene outside, to help with the dynamic perspective of the piazza. The buildings on either side are the old and new offices for the Venetian government: the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove. Guardi used strong shadow and bright light to animate the scene and populated it with a variety of figures described with a few deft brushstrokes.