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International Art Treasures Web Magazine March 2006 |
Canaletto in Venice
Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace
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The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace has an impressive exhibition devoted to Italian landscape master Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto. |
Canaletto
Title: The Grand Canal looking East from the Carità towards the Bacino, c. 1727-8
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The artist was born the son of a theater scene artist and at first followed in his father's footsteps. Together they worked on backdrops to operas; Vivaldi in Venice and Scarlatti in Rome. It was in the monuments and buildings of the latter city that Canaletto walked and sketched what he saw. Upon his return to Venice he opted to pursue a career in landscape paintings.
Title: The Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Salute looking towards the Riva degli Schiavoni, c. 1729-30.
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The British were appreciative of his renditions of a 'must visit' locale on the Grand Tour which anyone who wanted to be considered among the upper echelons had to have undertaken.
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Canaletto's paintings reminds one of that ethereal city. |
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Joseph Smith, the British Consul in Venice was Canaletto’s greatest patron as well as his friend and agent. It was through the sale of Smith’s entire collection to George III in 1762 which brought these masterpieces brought into royal ownership. They are believed to be the world’s finest group of Canaletto’s works, and include his greatest series of Venetian views dating from the late 1720s to early 1730s.
Title: The Mouth of the Grand Canal looking West from the Salute towards the Carità.
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Canaletto forever captured daily Venetian life with his beautiful paintings of the quayside houses and workshops on the Grand Canal’s upper reaches, regattas and Ascension Day celebrations around St Mark’s Square.
Title: A Regatta on the Grand Canal, c. 1733-4
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Canaletto notoriously created numerous sketches from different views before returning to his painting studio Through manipulation of space and design his work is better described as idealized city views and yet they had such accuracy that when one thinks of Venice it is Canaletto's Venice.
Title: The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day, c. 1733-4
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
He was considered to be a master draftsman making multiple on-the-spot drawings as points of reference. By the early 1730s these preparatory sketches had become meticulously finished works of art.
Title: The Lower Reach of the Grand Canal, c.1734
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
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The artist used pen and ink over a pencil under-drawing, occasionally with the addition of wash to accurately capture, as any Venice visitor can attest, the enchanting beauty of light and shade of the city. |
Highlights of the drawings include the famous record of the Campanile undergoing repairs after a lightning strike along with a series of capricci. During the 18th century a popular art style emerged in which a landscape would be altered with the inclusion of buildings from another location such when William Morris painted St. Paul's Cathedral overlooking a Venetian canal. Another method would be to create a fantasy landscape but leaving enough of the city that it's location was unmistakable. Of those that adopted this style the best known artist of the capriccio genre was Canaletto.
Title: Rialto Bridge / Ponte di Rialto, Venice, Italy
Image Courtesy: Italian Government Tourist Board
The capricci are playful in nature as Canaletto would alter the well-known Venetian topography creating a city of his own imagination. Art fans will have the opportunity to enjoy a large Capriccio with a monumental staircase that is said to be among the greatest works of Canaletto’s career.
Title: The Piazza, Looking West from under the Arcades of the Procuratie Nuove, c. 1745
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The central portion of Canaletto in Venice are fourteen majestic paintings of the Grand Canal. These will be complimented with 70 works on paper, making this exhibit the largest group of Canaletto’s drawings ever shown in the United Kingdom
Title: A Capriccio with a Monumental Staircase, c. 1755-60
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Italian 1697-1768)
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The exhibit closes just after the Queen's actual 80th birthday, and then journeys to the Queen's Gallery at Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland.
After Canaletto in Venice moves north to Edinburgh there will be a very special exhibit honoring the Queen's 80th birthday during The Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace from July 26 - September 24 2006 features items from the Royal Jewel Collections and some of the Queen's evening dresses.
Title: Boucheron Aquamarine and Diamond-Clip Brooches, given to Princess Elizabeth by King George VI
Exhibit: Glittering Gowns and Dazzling Diamonds, Buckingham Palace July 26 - September 24, 2006
Image Courtesy: The Royal Collection © 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Canaletto in Venice
Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London:
through April 23, 2006
Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh:
June 16, 2006 - January 7, 2007