Table Of ContentHARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY CLASSICS OF THE WORLD'S GREAT ART
31111001833894
The Complete
Paintings of
Canaletto
Introduction by Notes and Catalogue by
David Bindman Lionello Puppi
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I I I I
THE COMPLETE
PAINTINGS OF
CANALETTO
It is thanks to Canaletto, the painter of
views, that today we can know and
enjoy what many eighteenth-century
European cities looked like. His control
of optical principles gives a panoramic
completeness to each scene; his
meticulous and sensitive touch
preserves the atmosphere, the skyline,
the very look of each place. Although
the demand put upon him during the
peak of his popularity may have affected
the quality of some of his work,
Canaletto remains the finest exponent
of vedute, paintings ofviews, one ofthe
great trends of eighteenth-century art.
This volume is invaluable both for its
catalogue, which describes the whole of
Canaletto's vast output, and for its
discussion of the history of the painting
ofvedute, its techniques and its optical
devices.
David Bindman was educated at
Newcastle Royal Grammar School, at
Magdalen College, Oxford, at Harvard
University, and at the Courtauld
Institute ofArt. He is at present
Lecturer in the History ofArt at
Westfield College, London University.
He has written European Sculpture,
Bernini to Rodin and has compiled the
catalogue of the Blake Collection,
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
64 pages ofcolor
410 black-and-white illustrations
Cover illustration: Detail of The Bucintoro
Returning to the Quay on Ascension Day
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71C70053
MARIN COU.MTY LIB.IARY
Canaletto, 1697-1768
q
759.5 The complete pai -ings of Canaletto;
introduction by David Bindman, notes and
catalogue by LioneLlo Puppi. Abraras
[cl968]
128p. (chiefly illus. (part col.),
facsims., ports.) (Classics of the
world's great art)
1. Canaletto, 1697-1768 I Puppi,
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Lionello IJ-
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71-95195
LW 6/71
CLASSICS OF THE
WORLD'S GREAT ART
Each volume
presents the complete
paintings of the artist and includes:
• an introduction by an an historian
who
is an authority in his field
• an outline of the artist's critical
history - an anthology ofquotations
relating to the painter from his own
time to the present day
• 64 pages of full-color plates
carefully chosen to demonstrate
the artist's use of color
• a chronological survey ofhis life
and work, with reproductions of
recognized portraits, signatures, or
monograms
of the artist
• a basic bibliography
a catalogue raisonne ofall the
authenticated works, with repro-
ductions ofthese works
appendices showing works known
<
only by literary references or
copies, but no longer extant, as
well as a survey of other areas of
the artist's activity, whether it be
sculpture, architecture, drawing,
engraving, stained-glass, tapestry,
mosaic, marquetry or enamel
indexes - thematic, titles,
location, etc.
The complete paintings of
Canaletto
ntroduction by David Bindman
Notes and catalogue by Lionello Puppi
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers New York
Classics of the World's Great Art
Editor
Paolo Lecaldano
International Advisory
Board
Gian Alberto dell Acqua
Andre Chastel
Douglas Cooper
Lorenz Eitner
Enrique Lafuente Ferrari
Bruno Molajoli
Carlo L Ragghianti
Xavier de Salas
David Talbot Rice
JacquesThuillier
RudolfWittkower
Thisseries ofbooksis
publishedinItalybyRizzoli
Editore, inFranceby
Flammarion, inthe United
Kingdomby Weidenfe/dand
Nicolson, in the UnitedStates
byHarryN. Abrams, Inc..
in SpainbyEditorialNoguer
andin Switzerlandby
Kunstkreis
Standard Book Number
8109-5504-0
Library of Congress Catalogue
Card Number 71 -951 95
©Copyright in Italy by
Rizzoli Editore, 1968
Printed and bound in Italy
Table of contents
David Bindman Introduction 5
Lionello Puppi An outline ofthe artist's critical history 8
The paintings in colour 15
List of plates 16
Bibliography 82
Outline biography 83
Catalogue of works 86
Appendix Other works attributed to Canaletto 123
Indexes Subjects and titles 124
Topographical index 125
Photographicsources Colour plates: Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge (Mass.); Lord
Chamberlain's Office, London; Marzari, Milan; Nimatallah,
Milan.
Black and white illustrations: Alinari, Florence; Rizzoli Archives,
Milan; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Courtauld Institute of
Art, London; Feruzzi, Venice; Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale,
Rome; National Gallery ofArt, Washington d.c; Parke-Bernet
Galleries, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia,
Pa.; Photo Flammarion, Paris.
Introduction
Canaletto was rarely short ofenthusiastic patrons, but Grand Tour were cheerfully unconcerned about the
academicians and serious thinkers about art held him educational purpose oftheir visit to Italy, and became
in little esteem in his own time and for at least a captivated by the colour and pageantry ofVenice.
century after his death. Sir Joshua Reynolds must Venetian painting had, from as early as the fifteenth
have been familiar with Canaletto's work, but did not century, been intimately bound up with the public
consider him worthy ofmention in the Discourses to the ceremonies that so dazzled the rest of Europe. The
Royal Academy, while Ruskin saved some ofhis bitterest Bellini family had been engaged on large paintings
invective for Canaletto, comparing him in imbecility ofprocessions in which the city ofVenice was lovingly
to Dutch animal painters. Only late in the nineteenth depicted, while familiar landmarks like the Doge's
century did he become academically respectable, and Palace are often to be seen in the background of
regarded as worthy of scholarly study. The oppro- paintings by the great Venetian masters of the six-
brium that surrounded his name came from the very teenth century. In no sense, however, could these
qualities that we now prize in him. Canaletto's masters be called vedute painters, and only in the
painstaking precision and sensitivity to the nuances seventeenth century, as the ceremonial became more
of light were suspect to eighteenth-century connois- nostalgic with Venice's economic decline, did the
seurs, because they were applied to the external picturesque qualities of Venice and its way of life
appearance of nature rather than its ideal structure. become a pictorial subject in its own right.
Landscape that incorporated recognisable views or The first fully identifiable painter of vedute was the
buildings was considered to be merely imitative, northern artist Joseph Heinz, who was born c. 1600.
and, therefore, could appeal only to the senses and Heinz made a number ofpaintings of festivals within
not to the intellectual powers. the familiar setting ofthe canals, but it was with Luca
It is no coincidence that France, which had the Carlevaris (1663-1730) that vedute painting became a
most powerful Academy and the most active debate on genre in its own right, so that one could talk about a
matters of taste, should have shown no interest in school of vedute painters in Venice who were quite
Canaletto, while England, to the despair of artists distinct in manner from those who recorded other
who had been trained abroad, provided his most avid towns. Carlevaris virtually created the conditions that
patrons. Despite the efforts of many foreign artists allowed Canaletto to flourish, and the latter's rise was
and some native ones, England was not to have a initially at the former's expense. Carlevaris opened
regular system of artistic education until the founding up the market to English patrons and, like Canaletto,
of the Royal Academy in 1768. The writings of and Francesco Guardi after him, he offered not only
Shaftesbury and Richardson had earlier been in- views of the principal landmarks of Venice, vedute
fluential in associating the contemplation of"History" prese da i luoghi but also vedute ideate in the form of
painting and the remains ofAntiquity with virtue and purely imaginative landscapes, or, more distinctively,
high-mindedness, but many noblemen who took the compositions made up of the fanciful juxtaposition of
5
INTRODUCTION
familiar and unfamiliar buildings. It is difficult to be Roman views, probably derived from his own youth-
certain ofthe extent ofCarlevaris' influence on Cana- ful drawings and engravings of Rome available in
letto, but it is clear that Canaletto was regarded as the Venice rather than from a visit to Rome. Most of the
older painter's principal challenger, and in 1725, it Roman views remained in Joseph Smith's collection,
was noted by a commentator that the younger artist which he eventually sold to George ill, and it is
had surpassed Carlevaris on his own ground, because possible that their lack of commercial success led
ofthe superior luminosity ofhis paintings. Canaletto to seek fresh pastures in England.
Canaletto's early reputation for truth and freshness He arrived in London in May 1746 amid a certain
based on direct observation has not been challenged enthusiasm, but almost immediately the scurrilous
to this day. In the Stonebreaker's Yard (Plate xxm), a suggestion was put about that he was an impostor,
masterpiece of the 1 720s, topographical accuracy is partly because of confusion with his own nephew,
tempered by a warm, luminous atmosphere, while the Bernardo Bellotto, who had adopted the name Cana-
figures are painted with a good-humoured vitality letto himself, but also because of an initial and not
that would not be out of place in a Dutch painting altogether unjustified disappointment with his first
ofthe previous century. The stonebreaker's yard in the English views. Even so, he quickly found important
foreground is almost symbolic ofthe organic relation- clients, and until about 1 750 he was occupied on
ship between the activity ofthe figures and the build- views of London, and country houses as far afield as
ings that arise out of it. By the second half of the Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. His English
decade he had been discovered by the English, works are always incisive and often strikingly com-
initially in the person of Owen McSwiney, an posed, but he showed little sensitivity to the special
impresario of the arts, and later by his friend Joseph atmosphere of London, and some English connois-
Smith, who was to be British consul in Venice. seurs felt that there were English vedute painters
The relationship between Canaletto and Joseph who could paint just as well and certainly more
Smith remains rather shadowy, but it was clearly cheaply. To some extent, Canaletto's reputation was
based on mutual self-interest. English aristocrats had submerged by the rising tide of chauvinism and the
already shown a notable enthusiasm for Canaletto's growing resentment, fomented by Hogarth, against
work, and there is little doubt that Smith was the the domination of foreign artists. After 1 750, his
middleman in a number of major transactions in the career in England becomes harder to trace, and it is
1730s. Despite his erratic personality, Canaletto not known exactly when he returned to Venice,
succeeded admirably in keeping both the supply and although it was probably about 1 756.
the demand at full pitch, but with unfortunate In Venice, he remained a respected figure, but the
artistic consequences, for there is a notable decline in English, who had been drawn to Venice by the
quality in the later 730s. The figures are often reduced Palladian revival in the earlier part of the century,
1
to calligraphic squiggles, and the buildings seem to were now more likely to see Rome as the culmination
owe more to a study of earlier Canalettos than to of the Grand Tour. They spent their money on
fresh contemplation. It is likely that at this time he dubious antiquities, that conveyed more the aura of
used the camera ottica as an aid, but in a strictly limited learning than view paintings, and they are perhaps
way, and that he employed a number of assistants, commemorated better in portraits by Pompeo Batoni
although at present virtually nothing is known of showing them standing against the background ofthe
Canaletto's studio organisation. Yet, for all the over- Colosseum or discussing the merits of the Apollo
production in the 730s, and the demand for the most Belvedere, than they are by their own purchases.
1
obvious landmarks, the standard was sometimes Canaletto continued to paint vedute either for himself
remarkably high, even through a series oftwenty-two or for a dwindling clientele. His last works are seldom
paintings for the Duke ofBedford. dated, but scholars have recently become more
In 740, the War of the Austrian Succession cut confident in identifying Canaletto's late syle, which
1
down the number of tourists from England and Ger- is more likely to be confused with his early work than
many, and possibly under the advice of Joseph that ofthe intervening period. In the two small paint-
Smith, Canaletto began to diversify his production in ings of St Mark's Square towards the Basilica from the
order to open up new markets for his work by produc- South-west Corner, andfrom the North-west Corner {Cata-
ing more vedute ideate. He even painted a series of logue, 318-9) in the National Gallery, London,
6
