THE VISION OF CANALETTO

Entrance to the Grand Canal: Looking West

     Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) was born in Venice on October 28, 1697, to Bernardo Canal and Artemisia Barbieri.  He served his apprenticeship with his father and his brother and began his working in his father's occupation of a theatrical scene painter. After a few years he began to derive inspiration from Roman Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and started painting the daily life of the city and its people. 

     Canaletto lived during a time of change and transition.  Since wealthy English aristocrats sought out momentos to take back home with them at the end of their Grand Tours, painting Venetian scenes was a tremendous business during the 18th century.  By adopting a more commercial approach in the 1730's, which included painting smaller pictures which were more easily transported and beginning an association with British patron and agent Joseph Smith, who in turn would promote the painter to patrons and tourists coming from abroad, Canaletto was able to increase his earnings from his art. Canaletto's landscapes always garnered the high prices, and as early as the 18th century Catherine the Great and other European monarchs vied for his grandest paintings.

     During this time an intellectual movement called "The Enlightenment" was in the developing stages, stirring resentment and discord amongst Europeans.  At issue was censorship by the church and monarchy, taxation that supported the wealthy, albeit useless aristocracy.  Peoples attentions were turning towards the study of new philosophies, the arts and even science.  Canaletto enjoyed this time in Italy and spent hours of his life, painting in the early morning hours, capturing detail by detail the time worn palaces and old world cathedrals.  His landscapes portrayed the city's famous and colorful pageantry and waning traditions, while ingeniously incorporating the use of atmospheric effects and strong local colors.

     Canaletto's contemporaries were never able to achieve the level of liveliness he demonstrated in his depiction of nature, nor were they able to duplicate his ability to apply paint in a way that was both velvety and dramatic. The golden lighting of his Italian landscapes was that of an artist thoroughly saturated with Mediterranean tradition. Some believe that a combination of these qualities in his works are why he is thought to have anticipated Impressionism. The artist died of a stroke in April, 1768. 

     The National Gallery of Art, Washington, will present 21 of Canaletto’s finest paintings of Venice with 34 by his most important contemporaries, including Gaspar Vanvitelli, Luca Carlevarijs, Michele Marieschi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Guardi, in Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals, on view from February 20 through May 30, 2011, in the East Building.

The Rotunda of Ranelagh House

About the Rococo Movement 
     The Rococo style resulted as a backlash against Baroque formality and stuffiness. Rococo is not concerned with religious matters or dramatic expression. The highly decorative art and design movement began in Paris, France in the early 1700s and is sometimes known as the style of Louis XV.  A profoundly symbolic style of the self-indulgence of the aristocratic European rulers. Rocco manner is usually portrayed by graceful, enchanting, lighthearted themes and seldom features anything of substance. Sentiment was expressed instead of reason and emotionalism was expressed over intellect. Paintings are animated and clever, reflecting an impishly sensual daydream. 

The Stonemason's Yard - 1728

Canaletto Gallery
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.