For Gazzard, it is this paradoxical nature of Canaletto’s work – creating remarkably detailed views of his city, while also cleverly manipulating the scenes he depicts – that is particularly fascinating. Antonio Canale…astounds everyone in this city who sees his work, which is like that of Carlevarijs, but you can see the sun shining in it." The city that modern writers, film-makers and artists have portrayed is a place of shadows and memories, a ludicrously beautiful, impossible city where dream and reality are hard to tell apart. You can find that same mystery within the rational, meticulous views of Canaletto, but 24 views are quite a lot. And I am glad the city’s history did not stop in 1731 but has come into modern times when we plebeians can go there, too – even if we do spoil the view. This once in a lifetime exhibition will enable art lovers to enjoy and study up-close twenty-three beautiful paintings, in a fascinating exhibition that also explores Canaletto’s life and work, alongside themes of 18 th-century Venice and the Grand Tour.

The exhibition is part of ITALY@150, a series of activities in Washington, DC, and throughout the United States, that celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy and the long-lasting friendship between the two countries. John Eglin (13 January 2001). Venice Transfigured: The Myth of Venice in British Culture, 1660–1797. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-23299-3. According to early critic and associate of the artist, Antonio Maria Zanetti, Canaletto had grown tired of the theater and "bored with the indiscretion of the dramatic poets." He transferred his immediate artistic attentions onto the ancient Roman monuments and modern buildings that surrounded him. These formative architectural drawings became his first independent subjects and the realistic detail in which he rendered them was to form the basis for his mature style. The exhibition is curated by Charles Beddington, a leading specialist on Canaletto. It is coordinated at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, by David Alan Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish paintings.

Francis Haskell. Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque. New York, 1963, p. 305, states that Canaletto painted a series of twenty views for Sir Robert Hervey [sic] during the last half of the 1730s. At the height of Canaletto's fame, his workshop offered the finest training a view painter could receive. He taught his nephew Bernardo Bellotto (1721–1780), whose views are sometimes confused with those of his uncle. A unique characteristic of Bellotto's style is his vibrant blue sky, seen most dramatically in The Piazzetta, Looking North (c. 1743).

At the height of Canaletto’s fame, his workshop offered the finest training a view painter could receive. Among those to benefit was his precocious nephew, Bernardo Bellotto (1722–1780). By the age of 18 he could already imitate his uncle’s style with extraordinary dexterity and increasingly sought to introduce 'improving’ flourishes of his own. Having worked closely with Canaletto during his ‘cold’ period of 1738–42, an almost wintry light remained characteristic of Bellotto’s style for the rest of his career. Yet just as characteristic of Bellotto’s style were his uniquely vibrant blue skies, perhaps most dramatic in 'The Piazzetta, looking North', about 1743 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa). View painters prized topographical accuracy in their work. A tool they may have used to construct their views is the camera obscura—an optical device that helped painters project, invert, and trace the buildings and vistas of Venice. Two 18th-century examples of the camera obscura will be on view, providing an opportunity for visitors to learn more about this scientific tool. Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Hakim Bishara. "A Glorious Gift of European Artworks Is on Display at the Metropolitan Museum." Hyperallergic. November 19, 2019, ill. (color, installation views) [https://hyperallergic.com/528444/a-glorious-gift-of-european-artworks-is-on-display-at-the-metropolitan-museum/]. One of Vanvitelli's successors and the first view painter in Venice to depend on foreign patronage was Luca Carlevarijs (1663–1729), an artist Canaletto soon eclipsed. Visitors to the Gallery will see important early works by Canaletto, such as The Piazza San Marco, Looking East (1723), on view next to similar subjects by Carlevarijs.The exhibition travels to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where it will run from 20 February until 30 May 2011. The most celebrated view painter of eighteenth-century Venice, Canaletto was particularly popular with British visitors to the city. This wonderfully fresh and well-preserved canvas shows one of the city's most emblematic locations, the Piazza San Marco. Canaletto reduced the number of windows in the bell tower and extended the height of the flagstaffs, but otherwise he took few liberties with the cityscape. In fact, this painting can be situated among the artist’s other views of the square because of his meticulous documentation of various stages in the laying of its pavement between 1725 and 1727. View more Listen

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 91, ill. National Maritime Museum Free displays Pioneers: A Renaissance in South Asian Creativity A series of portraits of South Asian creative individuals, on display at the National Maritime Museum. Are you ready to meet the pioneers? We can just make out the tiny silhouettes of people crossing over the bridge, while others emerge into the sunlight along the waterfront. Beyond this is an area known as the ghetto, built up high because of the shortage of land. This is where, from the sixteenth century, the Jewish population was forced by decree to live.

The square now attracts large numbers of tourists,” points out the wall text, but there’s another difference – these buildings are now much better cared for. The rise of modern tourism is not a completely negative phenomenon. When it started in the 1800s, architectural theorists such as John Ruskin helped chronicle and celebrate every detail of Venetian medieval architecture. Restoration and cleaning preserved palaces that might otherwise have toppled over by now. The immediate successor to Vanvitelli and the first view painter in Venice to depend on foreign patronage was Luca Carlevarijs (1663–1730). Important early works by Canaletto – including 'The Piazza San Marco, looking East', about 1723 (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) – are displayed alongside depictions of similar locations by Carlevarijs, the artist he had already begun to eclipse. It's true that Canaletto’s entrepreneurial spirit was one of the reasons behind his success, says Gazzard: “Canaletto’s work was portable, collectible, and his customer base of elite figures ensured that his work was spread around Europe during his lifetime.” Major rivals on display include Luca Carlevarijs, Michele Marieschi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Guardi. Also represented are less well-known painters, each responding to the market driven largely by the British Grand Tour. The paintings were made in around 1740, when Canaletto produced his most commercially successful works. They are among the grandest views of Venice he made for the wealthy visitors who came to explore the city and to witness the impressive ceremonies held on the Grand Canal. It was largely the Grand Tourists from northern Europe, rather than Venetians, who bought Canaletto’s large, showy view paintings, to remind them of the city’s outstanding beauty and unique entertainments.