| Canaletto
(Giovanni Antonio Canal) (1697-1768). Venetian painter, the most
famous view-painter of the 18th century. He began work painting
theatrical scenery (his father's profession), but he turned to
topography during a visit to Rome in 1719-20, when he was influenced
by the work of Giovanni Paolo Panini.
By 1723 he was painting dramatic
and picturesque views of Venice, marked by strong contrasts of light
and shade and free handling, this phase of his work culminating in
the splendid Stone Mason's Yard (National Gallery, London, c. 1730).
Meanwhile, partly under the influence of Luca Carlevaris, and
largely in rivalry with him, Canaletto began to turn out views which
were more topographically accurate, set in a higher key, and with
smoother, more precise handling -- characteristics that mark most of
his later work. At the same time he began painting the ceremonial
and festival subjects which ultimately formed an important part of
his work. His patrons were chiefly English collectors, for whom he
sometimes produced series of views in uniform size.
Conspicuous among them was Joseph
Smith, a merchant, appointed British Consul in Venice in 1744. It
was perhaps at his instance that Canaletto enlarged his repertory in
the 1740s to include subjects from the Venetian main Frameland and
from Rome (probably based on drawings made during his visit as a
young man), and by producing numerous capricci. He also gave
increased attention to the graphic arts, making a remarkable series
of etchings, and many drawings in pen, and pen and wash, as
independent works of art and not as preparation for paintings. This
led to changes in his style of painting, increasing an already
well-established tendency to become stylized and mechanical in
handling. He often used the camera obscura as an aid to
composition.
In 1746 he went to England,
apparently at the suggestion of Jacopo Amigoni (the War of the
Austrian Succession drastically curtailed foreign travel, and Canaletto's
tourist trade in Venice had dried up). For a time he was very
successful, painting views of London and of various country houses.
Subsequently, his work became increasingly lifeless and mannered, so
much so that rumors were put about, probably by rivals, that he was
not in fact the famous Canaletto but an impostor. In 1755 he
returned to Venice and continued active for the remainFrameder of
his life. Legends of his having amassed a fortune in Venice are
disproved by the official inventory of his estate on his death.
Before this, Joseph Smith had sold the major part of his paintings
to George III, thus bringing into the royal collection an unrivalled
group of Canaletto's paintings and drawings.
Canaletto was highly influential in
Italy and elsewhere. His nephew Bernardo Bellotto took his style to
Central Europe and his followers in England included William Marlow
and Samuel Scott..
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