Vista Alegre Crystal Única Large Vase Caneleto Blue

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W. G. Constable. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. Ed. J. G. Links. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1976, vol. 1, pl. 11; vol. 2, p. 188, no. 2. This exhibition presents the finest assembly of Venetian views since the much-celebrated display in Venice in 1967. It features works by Canaletto and all the major practitioners of the genre. From March 1 to May 30, Washington DC will honor Italian culture with La Dolce DC, a citywide celebration of all things Italian, timed to coincide with the opening of Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals. In addition to this landmark exhibition and the outstanding Italian masterpieces in the permanent collection, the Gallery will present an array of offerings celebrating Italian culture, including lectures, film programs, concerts, Gallery Talks, and Garden Café Italia.

Created over a four-year period, when the artist was at the pinnacle of his career, the Woburn Abbey paintings are the largest set of paintings that Canaletto ever produced, and much the largest that has remained together. The Holburne exhibition provides a unique and unprecedented opportunity to see these exceptional paintings at viewing height, as they normally hang three high in the setting in the Dining Room they have occupied at Woburn since the late eighteenth century. The set features not only classic views of the Grand Canal and the Piazza S. Marco but also some of the city’s less well-known nooks and crannies, rarely captured by other artists and revealing new historical and cultural perspectives on Venice in its last decades as the “ most serene Republic”. Gondolas glide across the water, passing fishing boats which direct our gaze towards the mouth of the Cannaregio Canal, Venice’s largest waterway after the Grand Canal. The Ponte delle Guglie (‘bridge of the obelisks’), constructed in 1580 with an elegant balustrade and a pair of obelisks at each end, spans the water.

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.

All eyes are on the one-oared gondolas ( battelli) racing up the middle of the canal. Just right of centre two craft swing around the bend, tilted and almost touching; the boatmen strain against their oars, trying to catch up with the leaders who are approaching the Rialto Bridge in the distance. Another boat enters the scene on the far right. Spectators watch from the Macchina and cheer from windows hung with multi-coloured banners and from the vessels lining the banks of the canal. Lavishly decorated bissone (eight- or ten-oared boats) carry Venetian nobles, who recline on velvet cushions, and rowers in colourful uniforms. Some of these boats are adorned with mythological figures and animals, others have an oriental theme. As an heir to the legacy of the great Renaissance masters, Canaletto was admired for his subtle blending of sunlight, shadow and cloud effects, and his play of light on architectural structures. Much of his preparation work was carried out "on location" (rather than in the studio); an artistic predilection that was considered highly unusual for that time. W. G. Constable. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. Ed. J. G. Links. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1976, vol. 1, pp. 110–15, pl. 50; vol. 2, pp. 277, 305–6, no. 240. In 1725, the painter Alessandro Marchesini, who was also the buyer for the Lucchese art collector Stefano Conti, had inquired about buying two more 'views of Venice', when the agent urged him to consider instead the work of "Antonio Canale... it is like Carlevaris, but you can see the sun shining in it."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 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. a b C. A. Fletcher; T. Spencer (14 July 2005). Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and its Lagoon: State of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84046-0. Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource referenceCanaletto's vantage point for this bird's-eye view was a window on an upper floor of the Procuratie Vecchie, slightly to the north of the center line of the piazza, where the Procuratie abutted San Geminiano, the small church that was demolished in 1807 to make way for the Napoleonic wing of the Palazzo Reale. A virtually identical view appears in Le fabriche, e vedute di Venetia (The Met, 57.618), an album of 104 etchings by Luca Carlevaris (1663–1730), which was published in 1703. While the foreshortening of the architecture is the same in both scenes, the cast shadows in the etching indicate early morning. Venice, a view of the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo, with a moored Man-of-war, Gondolas and Barges Much of Canaletto's early artwork was painted "from nature", differing from the then customary practice of completing paintings in the studio. Some of his later works do revert to this custom, as suggested by the tendency for distant figures to be painted as blobs of colour – an effect possibly produced by using a camera obscura, which blurs farther-away objects. The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue presenting the latest scholarship on the complex stylistic relationships between Canaletto, his associates and rivals – the major practitioners of Venetian view painting in the 18th century. He was born in Venice as the son of the painter Bernardo Canal, hence his mononym Canaletto ("little Canal"), and Artemisia Barbieri. Canaletto served his apprenticeship with his father and his brother. He began in his father's occupation, that of a theatrical scene painter. Canaletto was inspired by the Roman vedutista Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and started painting the daily life of the city and its people.

Lionello Puppi in The Complete Paintings of Canaletto. New York, 1968, p. 101, no. 118A, ill., as an autograph work by Canaletto, whereabouts unknown; dates it 1731–35. 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.” 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). Please be aware, there is a limited number and priority will be given to people with visual impairments. John Eglin (13 January 2001). Venice Transfigured: The Myth of Venice in British Culture, 1660–1797. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-23299-3.

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Capriccio of a Round Church with an Elaborate Gothic Portico in a Piazza, a Palladian Piazza and a Gothic Church Beyond The exhibition is being described as the most ambitious in the history of Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum. The festivals, regattas, and ceremonies of Venice will be showcased in the exhibition through several important works, including Canaletto's The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day (c. 1733–1734). Historical events of the city were also recorded by the view painters, such as in Carlevarijs' pioneering composition The Reception of the British Ambassador Charles Montagu, 4th Earl of Manchester, at the Doge's Palace, 22 September 1707 (c. 1707–1708). Katharine Baetjer and J. G. Links. Canaletto. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 130–31, no. 27, ill. (color), suggest a date in the late 1720s and compare it to the larger and earlier view in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, which shows the piazza only partly paved with stone, and is on that account dated in or about 1723; observe that the windows of the campanile are fewer in number and more widely spaced than in reality, and that the flagstaffs are too tall, but that otherwise the artist took few, if any, liberties with the topography; note that it is not engraved and there is no evidence of a pendant.