The exhibition Canaletto: Bernardo Bellotto paints Europe at Alte Pinakothek in Munich from October 17, 2014 until January 18, 2015 is the first comprehensive one about the great master in Germany in almost fifty years. 65 of his paintings, drawings and etchings are on display in Bavaria’s capital. The exhibition is as fantastic as the English catalogue is recommendable: Amazon.com; German edition: Bernardo Bellotto malt Europa: Amazon.de.
The exhibition and the catalogue Canaletto: Bernardo Bellotto paints Europe offer an excellent selection of the master’s vedute, for instance of Venice, Rome, Verona, Turin, Dresden, Munich, Vienna and Warsaw, where his accurate paintings, made with the help of the camera obscura, were used to rebuild the city after the destruction during the Second World War.
Veduta painting in general and Giovanni Antonio Canal and Bernardo Bellotto in particular had not always been greatly appreciated. Like still life painters, vedutistas had been considered representatives of a minor art. The leading English art critic of the Victorian era, John Ruskin, went as far as to say about Giovanni Antonio Canal: “He professes nothing but coloured daguerreo-typeism.” The Munich exhibition shows once more that the two Canalettos offer more than photo-realistic landscape renderings before the invention of photography. They were true artists. Bellotto “took his cue from his uncle’s art, which he both continued and outdid.”
In his catalogue contribution, “A Lot of Art for a Lot of Truth”, Andreas Schumacher points out that Michael Wolgemut or one of his associates made the first known veduta of the city of Munich around the year 1490. He drew it sitting on the raised east banks of the Isar at a place called Gasteig. Some 300 years later, Bernardo Bellotto positioned himself in the same spot to compose the most famous view of Munich in art history. He used a camera obscura. Although the two artworks look similar at first glance, they are not only separated by three centuries of major developments in the veduta genre. Bellotto’s work shows artistic quality and autonomy. His view has little to do with simple cartographic depictions. Modern vedute capture the mood and the atmosphere of a place. Despite the use of a camera obscura, both Canal and Bellotto used their imagination and creative desire. Their works are neither simple mechanical reproductions nor the result of mathematical constructions.
Bernardo Bellotto was a painting historian who offered closeness-to-life, snapshots, stage directions, idealized and hybrid perspectives, manipulated yet precisely surveyed views.
In other catalogue essays, Julia Thoma has a look at commissioners and functions of Bellotto’s vedute, Bozena Anna Kowalczyk examines Bellotto as a landscape painter, Andrea Gottdang analyzes Bellotto’s architectural fantasies of the 1760s and Theresa Wagener examines the evolution of Bellotto’s style, which had already become independent from his uncle’s at the time when one Canaletto went to England and the other to Dresden.
The second part of the book includes the catalogue in the strict sense. On one page, an artwork is reproduced, on the other, related information is given. The third part of the exhibition catalogue is dedicated to the Munich vedute. The six articles examine in detail various aspects of his Munich works.
This article is based on the highly-recommendable exhibition catalogue Canaletto: Bernardo Bellotto paints Europe, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Hirmer, October 2014, 360 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr. Order the German edition about the famous vedutista, Canaletto: Bernardo Bellotto malt Europe, from Amazon.de.
Bernardo was born in Venice on May 20, 1722. He was the third child of the asset manager Lorenzo Antonio Bellotto and Fiorenza Domenica canal, a sister of the famous veduta painter Giovanni Antonio Canal aka Canaletto.
Around 1735 Bernardo joined his uncle’s workshop as an apprentice. Among the many things he learned was how to use the camera oscura. He showed his authentic talent already with his first drawings. Bernardo Bellotto later signed his paintings “Canaletto” in tribute to his uncle and teacher Giovanni Antonio Canal, the first “Canaletto”.
In 1740 at the invitation of Count Andrea Gerini, Bernardo Bellotto traveled to Florence, where he painted several vedute. The same year, he also visited Lucca. Probably the following year, he made study trips with his uncle to the Veneto mainland along the Brenta and to Padua during which he made numerous drawings. In 1742 he visited Rome, with stopovers in Florence and Livorno, making a large number of drawings, the material for decades of work to come.
On November 5, 1741 Benardo Bellotto married Elisabetta Pizzorno. Their first son, Lorenzo Francesco, was born on October 1742. Their next three children all died before reaching adolescence. In Dresden, his wife gave birth to five daughters born between 1748 and 1757. Two of them died as children.
In 1743 at the Venetian painters’ annual exhibition, Bernardo Bellotto presented two vedute, which made him emerge from the shadow of his uncle, Giovanni Antonio Canal, who left Venice for London in 1746.
In 1744 Bernardo spent quite some time in Lombardy, where he executed, among other works, two vedute for the archbishop of Milan, Giuseppe Pozzobonelli as well as a series of views of Vaprio for Count Antonio Simonetta.
In 1745 Bellotto was commissioned to paint two vedute of Turin by Charles Emmanuel III, duke of Savoy and king of Sardinia-Piedmont. Subsequently, he stayed in Verona for some more veduta painting.
In 1747 Bernardo Bellotto left Venice for Dresden. He presumably had been invited by Augustus III, elector of Saxony and king of Poland. Shortly after his arrival, he painted the first vedute for the collection of Augustus III. The following year, he was appointed court painter in Dresden. He was commissioned to paint an extensive cycle of pictures including views of Dresden, Pirna and Königstein. Subsequently, he repeated the cycle in an almost identical format for the prime minister, Heinrich, Count von Brühl (kurfürstlich sächsischer und königlich-polnischer Premierminister). In addition, he executed many of the same motifs as etchings.
Following the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War and the flight of Augustus III to Warsaw, Bellotto left Dresden for Bayreuth at the end of 1758. From there, he moved on to Vienna, where he worked for private clients as well as for Wenzel Anton, Prince von Kaunitz and Joseph Wenzel, Prince von Liechtenstein. Subsequently, he entered the service of Empress Maria Theresia, for whom he executed for instance a cycle including thirteen views of Vienna as well as Schönbrunn and Hof palaces.
In 1760 Bernardo Bellotto’s house in Dresden was destroyed by Prussian troops under Frederick the Great. He lost numerous paintings and printing plates; he estimated his total loss at 50,000 taler.
In 1761 Bellotto left Vienna for Munich, where spent spent almost a year. In a letter to her cousin Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Empress Maria Theresia had praised Bellotto’s artistic achievements at the Viennese court. Logically, he was commissioned works by the ruling family of Bavaria. He painted a panoramic view of Munich and two vedute of Nymphenburg Palace for the elector of Bavaria. The three works have been recently restored and are of course at the heart of the exhibition at Alte Pinakothek in Munich. They are normally on dislplay at the Munich residence of Maximilian III Joseph as part of the decor of the Electoral Apartments, for which they had been originally conceived.
At the end of 1761, Bellotto returned to Dresden, where he lost his position as court painter in 1763 after the unexpected death of his patron Augustus III. In the following years, he painted numerous allegories and architectural fantasies for private clients. In addition, he executed replicas of earlier works, presumably with the help of his son Lorenzo.
In 1764 with the support of the court of Saxony, Bellotto was given a limited-tenure, teaching position at the newly founded Dresden Academy of Art, at an annual salary of 600 taler; in comparison, as official court painter in the same city, he had made 1750 taler a year from 1748 onwards.
In 1765 as his reception piece for the Art Academy, Bernardo Bellotto submitted a few of Dresden (cat. 57 at Alte Pinakothek exhibition catalogue). At the first Academy exhibition the same year, he was represented with four paintings.
At the end of 1766, the director of Dresden Academy of Art acceded to Bellotto’s application for nine months leave of absence for a visit to St Petersburg. He had in mind to work for Catherine the Great, who had already welcomed architects and musicians from Italy. During a stopover in Warsaw, he was introduced to the Polish king, Stanislaw II August Poniatowski, by the latter’s principal court painter, Marcello Bacciarelli, a master of historical motifs. Bellotto was immediately commissioned to paint works for Ujazdów Castle. On July 27, 1766 Bellotto applied for an extension of his leave of absence from Dresden, but in reality he was never to return to Saxony. He worked the rest of his life for the Polish king.
In 1768 Bellotto was appointed court painter by the Polish king. He was granted additional perquisites in addition to his annual salary of 400 ducats. The following year, based on prints of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s famous etchings entitled Vedute di Roma, Bellotto executed a series of views of Rome and, in addition, he painted self-researched vedute of Warsaw, both for Ujadzów Castle. His son Lorenzo assisted him.
In 1770, Bellotto painted a panoramic view of Warsaw. That same year, his son Lorenzo died. Subsequently, Bernardo dedicated himself primarily to a cycle of views of Warsaw and Wilanów, for the Senator’s Room in the Royal Castle of Warsaw.
On November 17, 1780 Bernardo Bellotto aka Canaletto died suddenly of a stroke. He is buried in the Capuchin church in Warsaw.
This article is based on the highly-recommendable exhibition catalogue Canaletto: Bernardo Bellotto paints Europe, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Hirmer, October 2014, 360 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com; German edition: Bernardo Bellotto malt Europa, Hirmer Verlag. Order the catalogue from Amazon.de.
More books about Canaletto aka Bernardo Bellotto at Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de.
Article added on November 13, 2014 at 19:13 CET. Review added to our newly designed WordPress pages on April 13, 2022.
