COMPETING WITH CANALETTO

Venice Canaletto Venetian view painters are like 14th-century English authors or 15th-century German printers: people struggle to name more than one of them. But Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697—1768) wasn’t the only one. A major exhibition at the National Gallery in London shows that he had rivals, precursors and acolytes.

View painting took off when the Grand Tour brought visitors to Venice with a thirst for souvenirs. Until the 1720s, the masters were Luca Carlevarijs, whose unexpected viewpoints repay close study, and Vanvitelli (Gaspar van Wittel), whose “The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco” (1697) is shown below.

Canaletto, who studied under Vanvitelli, burst on the scene with his sunlight effects, cloud formations and lively depictions of everyday life (above: “The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking West”, c.1735). He quickly developed smaller-scale works to be shipped home by his foreign admirers. The British Consul in Venice, Joseph Smith, was one of Canaletto’s best patrons and also served him (and other view painters) as an agent. Smith sold most of his paintings to the young George III in 1762. This show charts the development of Canaletto’s style, including the more wintry and analytical approach he adopted from 1738 to 1742 and his final move, from 1755, to multiple vanishing points and distortions.

Venice Canaletto The only contemporary to pose a threat to his dominance was Michele Marieschi, who went in for broad brushstrokes, light blues and shades of brown, a penchant for red and extreme foreshortening. He sold to Canaletto’s other main patron, the German field marshal Johann Matthias von der Schulenberg, and Canaletto may have been relieved when he died young in 1743.

Canaletto’s next rival was his own nephew, Bernardo Bellotto. Many found it hard to distinguish between them, and Bellotto’s precocious talent seems to have been enough of a threat to cause Canaletto to sign his paintings for the first time. Bellotto left Venice before he was 25 and did his best work in the wintry light of Vienna and Dresden. Finally there was Guardi, whose looser style, with dobs of white on the crests of the waves, chimes with the crumbling beauty of today’s sinking city.

"Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals" National Gallery, London, October 13th to January 16th

~ KAREN TAYLOR