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Biography of Canaletto
Name: Canaletto
Birth Date: October 18, 1697
Death Date: April 20, 1768
Place of Birth: Venice, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Gender: Male
Occupations: painter, artist
Canaletto
The Italian painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (1697-1768), is known for his scenes of 18th-century Venice, executed with accuracy, precision, and Iuminosity.Canaletto and Francesco Guardi between them created the image the world has held of Venice from the late 18th century to the present day. Guardi romanticized what he saw, but Canaletto did not. One of the many Englishmen who visited Venice in the 18th century said that Canaletto's excellence lay in painting things that fell immediately under his eye. What falls under the eye in Venice, then as now, is romantic enough. The buildings, built along canals instead of streets, seem to rise up out of the lagoon as if suspended between earth and water. From a distance, domes and towers appear to float. The colorful crowds that throng the main squares give Venice the air of being continuously in carnival. Canaletto painted his views not for Venetians …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…the painted surfaces are beautifully modulated--the tan buildings touched with rose, and rose again in the blue of the sky. The open spaces come alive with festive clusters of bright little figures. These he brushed in broadly and made them sparkle with a scattering of white dots.Under increasing pressure to turn out more and more paintings for the tourist trade, Canaletto took on assistants, who watered down his style. Many of his late canvases are overly rigid and dry. Further Reading The most complete study of Canaletto is W. G. Constable, Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768 (2 vols., 1962), but it is difficult and dry. For a more sensitive interpretation see F. J. B. Watson, Canaletto (1949). K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Antonio Canaletto ... at Windsor Castle (1948), is the best book in its area. A brief but highly readable account of Canaletto appears in Michael Levey, Painting in XVIII Century Venice (1959).
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