Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place

Canaletto and Venetian View-Painting: Place, Postcard, Production

A/Prof. David R. Marshall

22/23 February 2017

Lecture summary:

This lecture looks first at how the representation of a particular place — — became a pictorial genre; and second at the nature of the relationship between picture and place. It argues that in the 1720s in Venice view-painting (the veduta — the representation of a particular place —) emerged from a range of pictorial genres that were at best casual in their relation to real sites. This was encouraged both by local patrons, who began to demand more local topographical interest in the decorative pictures painted for their palaces, especially the main hall on the piano nobile, the portego. These pictures were painted in the fluid, painterly style then fashionable. Around 1726 British Grand Tourists came on the scene, and in response to commissions mostly coming by way of the British Consul in Venice, Joseph Smith, began producing pictures in a harder more graphic style, and often in quite large sets. This seriality pushed him to expand the range of sites depicted in response to the tourists’ need for a record of places visited. Such a range of subjects had hitherto been confined to prints. This meant that Canaletto had to attend more closely to real sites, and find a way of recording them in a way that would be useful for creating paintings. Did he use optical devices like the camera obscura, as his predecessor Gaspar van Wittel did (and as David Hockney argues)? What part did perspective play? Are his pictures like pioneering photographic postcards? Or is the relationship between a Canaletto vedute and the ‘real’ Venice more abstract than you might think?

Slide list:

1. Luca Carlevaris, The Reception of Cardinal César d'Estrées, 1701 Oil on canvas, 130 x 260 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 2. (1663 – 1730), Capriccio View of a Mediterranean Port, c. 1714. signed in monogram lower center: L+C. Oil on canvas, 104.5 by 176 cm. 3. Canaletto, Riva degli Schiavoni: Looking East 1730. Oil on canvas, 58.4 x 101.6 cm Tatton Park, Cheshire, The Edgerton Collection The National Trust 4. Canaletto, The Bacino di San Marco from the Piazzetta, 1721–22. 187 x 200 cm. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen 5. Canaletto, Il Rio dei Mendicanti, 1723, Venice, Ca' Rezzonico 6. Gaspar Van Wittel (Vanvitelli), S. Maria della Salute and the Entrance to the Grand Canal, probably 1695. 124 x 216 cm. Rome, Palazzo Colonna. 7. Gaspar Van Wittel, First preparatory drawing for S. Maria della Salute and the Entrance to the Grand Canal, probably 1695. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour 364 x 1120 cm. Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale, Disegni 3, II, 1. 8. Canaletto, Italian (Venetian), 1697–1768, The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice. 1730. Oil on canvas, 49.6 × 73.6 cm. The Robert Lee Blaffer Memorial Collection, gift of Sarah Campbell Blaffer. Commissioned by Bishop Howard in Ireland through Joseph Smith.

Proudly sponsored by

9. Canaletto, View towards the Rialto Bridge, 1725. Private Collection. Painted for Stefano Conti in Lucca, with Alessandro Marchesini as middle-man. 10. Canaletto, The Rialto Bridge from the North. 1725. Pen and brown ink etc. 140 x 202 mm. Oxford, Ashmolean 11. Canaletto, The Grand Canal from C’ Rezzonico to Palazzo Balbi. 1731-32. 47 x 80 cm. Woburn Abbey, Duke of Bedford. 12. Canaletto, The Accademia sketchbook. 13. Canaletto, The lower bend of the Grand Canal looking north, with Ca’ Rezzonico and Palazzo Balbi. c. 1734. Drawing, 27.2 x 37.5. Royal Collection. 14. Canaletto, View of Piazza S. Marco with S. Marco and the Campanile. c. 1743. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn. 15. Canaletto, The Piazza San Marco from the Clock Tower, 1742-1746. Oil on canvas. 67.5 x 119.0 cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of James Fairfax AC 1996 16. Canaletto, Bacino di S. Marco, c. 1750. National Gallery of Victoria. Formerly Farnborough Hall.

References:

Aikema, B. and B. Bakker (1990). Painters of Venice. The Story of the Venetian 'Veduta'. Amsterdam and The Hague, Rijksmuseum & Gardy Schwartz SDU. Baetjer, K., et al. (1989). Canaletto. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art : Distributed by H.N. Abrams. Canaletto and G. Nepi Scire (1997). Canaletto's sketchbook. Venice, Canal & stamperia. Corboz, A. (1985). Canaletto. Una Venezia immaginaria. Milan, Alfieri Electa. Devapriam, E. (1985). "Bacino di S. Marco: From the Piazzetta." Art Bulletin of Victoria 25: 33-4 Francesco Algarotti, An Essay on Painting, 1764. David Hockney, Secret Knowledge (New and Expanded Edition): Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, 2006. Kowalczyk, B. A. (2005). Canaletto: il trionfo della veduta. Cinisello Balsamo (Milano), Silvana. Links, J. G. (1982). Canaletto. Oxford, Phaidon. Marshall, D. R. (2005). "Canaletto and Panini at Farnborough Hall." Art Bulletin of Victoria (45). Visentini, A., et al. (1988). Il Canal Grande nelle vedute del "Prospectus magni canalis Venetiarum". Milano, Edizioni Il Polifilo.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/