Canaletto

Giovanni Antonio Canal ( born October 7, 1697 in Venice, † April 19, 1768 ibid ), called Canaletto, was an Italian vistas and landscape painter.

Life

Canaletto learned painting in the workshop of his father, who created stage sets for theater performances. He became famous through the images of his native city of Venice, and by Capricci. They feature almost photorealistic accurate and detailed representation. To achieve this precision, he used a camera obscura as an aid.

Antonio Canal is to be distinguished from his nephew Bernardo Bellotto, who worked in a very similar way and later also used the stage name " Canaletto ". Antonio Canals They came up full of light, mostly cheerful and brighter than that of his nephew.

One of the patrons and clients Canaletto was the English consul in Venice, Joseph Smith, who also in 1728 Antonio Visentini with the stitches to Canaletto's Venetian vistas under the title Venetiarum nobis Prospectus, commissioned and thus for the distribution of works among the traveling on the Grand Tour English nobles cared. After the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740 the number of its orders fell. Canal in 1746 went to England for ten years, after he learned of Jacopo Amigoni, who had spent several years there as an artist, from local circumstances, and won the Duke of Richmond as a patron. His creates there appear lighter and livelier. They are among the best representations of London in the 18th century. The last years of his life were spent back in Venice. His paintings were darker, but were still full of surprises.

Works (selection)

Campo di Rialto, Venice

River landscape with column and Arc de Triomphe

Grand Canal in Venice

Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo with the monument of Bartolomeo Colleoni (1741 ). Oil on wood.

Partial view of the Piazza San Marco in Venice ( 1735 ). Oil on canvas ( Charles and Magdalene Haberstock Foundation, Augsburg).

Alnwick Castle, Northern England

Looking through the Westminster Bridge London ( 1747 ).

Listing:

• Engravings and drawings by Canaletto

Water festival on the Grand Canal, Venice

Campo San Giovanni e Paolo, Venice

A monograph on Antonio Canal lists the following etchings on:

Further painted in England works are listed there (see also :):