Product Description

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal; 1697-1768) was one of the greatest view painters of the 18th century. His images of Venice, the city of his birth, found an immediate market amongst collectors, particularly the English nobility on the Grand Tour, and are regarded as amongst the most accomplished of all topographical paintings. In 1762 George III acquired the world’s finest group of Canaletto’s works when he purchased the entire collection of Joseph Smith, the British Consul in Venice. These included an outstanding series of Venetian views, among them 14 luminous paintings of the Grand Canal, which form the centerpiece of this book. The paintings are not only fascinating snapshots of Venetian daily life, from quayside workshops to the bustling festivities of Ascension Day around St Mark’s Square, but masterly studies of the effects on the human eye of water, light and atmosphere. The 70 drawings in the book range from rapid sketches to exquisitely finished studies of churches and squares; from elegiac studies of islands in the lagoon to a delightful series of capricci, in which the artist rearranged the familiar Venetian topography to create a city of the imagination. This book explores Venice as it was and Canaletto’s interpretation of it, as he created what have become the archetypal images of the most beautiful city in the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1850641 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages