01 Paintings of the Canals of Venice by the artists of their time, with foot notes. #15

Bernardo Bellotto, VENICE 1722 - 1780 WARSAW

VENICE, PIAZZA SAN MARCO LOOKING EAST TOWARDS THE BASILICA

Oil on canvas

61 x 92.7 cm.; 24 x 36 1/2  in.

Private collection

The artist trained in the studio of his uncle, Canaletto, and by the age of sixteen was producing work of such quality that it was indistinguishable from, and indeed often sold as, the work of his celebrated uncle. As is the case for most of Bellotto's early paintings, the design closely follows a work by Canaletto.

The sight of the Basilica of San Marco and the Campanile flanked by the Procuratie Vecchie and the Procuratie Nuove from the West end of the Piazza down its central axis has always been one of the quintessential Venetian views, and it is hardly surprising that the many paintings of it by Luca Carlevarijs, Canaletto, Michele Marieschi and Francesco Guardi are often among those artists’ most impressive works. Canaletto’s earliest view of it in the Museo Thyssen, Madrid, datable to circa 1723, as it shows the new pavement of the Piazza designed by Andrea Tirali in the process of being laid, has long been considered one of the great masterpieces of the painter’s first style. More on this painting

Piazza San Marco or St. Mark’s Square is the main public square in Venice.  The Piazza is located in front of the great Byzantine church known as Basilica di San Marco. This Piazza is surrounded by shops, caffè’s and palazzi on three sides. According to local legend Napoleon called the Piazza San Marco “the drawing room of Europe.” More on Piazza San Marco

Bernardo Bellotto, (c. 1721 or 30 January 1721 – 17 November 1780) was an Italian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching famous for his vedute of European cities (Dresden, Vienna, Turin and Warsaw). He was the pupil and nephew of the famous Giovanni Antonio Canal Canaletto and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself as Bernardo Canaletto. In Germany and Poland, Bellotto called himself by his uncle's name, Canaletto.
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Bellotto's style was characterized by elaborate representation of architectural and natural vistas, and by the specific quality of each place's lighting. It is plausible that Bellotto, and other Venetian masters of vedute, may have used the camera obscura in order to achieve superior precision of urban views. More on Bernardo Bellotto

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