| |
Historical Artist - Bernardo Bellotto (1721 - 1780)
Nephew of Canaletto, Bernardo’s Bellotto’s work spent most of his life outside
Italy. Because he signed many of his works done abroad with the signature “de
Canaletto,” many of his paintings were mistakenly attributed to his famous uncle. At the
age of seventeen, Bellotto was admitted to the Venetian painter’s guild, probably with the
help of his Canaletto. In the 1740’s, he traveled to Rome and northern Italy and painted
his first imaginary views, also called vedute ideale. He also remained interested in
architecture and the sky. Bellotto moved to Dresden in 1747 and became the highest paid artist
in the Saxon court. In 1768, he worked in Vienna and Munich and also became a court painter in
Warsaw. His paintings of Warsaw, later relocated to Moscow and Leningrad, were restored to the
Polish Communist Government and were used in rebuilding the city after its near-complete
destruction by German and Russian troops during World War II.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.
Contemporary Italian Artists
Art Galleries in Italy
|
