dp canaletto anglais - copie - Musée Maillol

Antonio Canal dit Canaletto – La Basilique de la Salute et la Douane vues du Palais Cornaro (détail) – 1725-1730 – Huile sur toile - 46,5 x 91 cm
Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Photo © Volker – H. Schneider
PRESS RELEASE
sous le haut patronage de la Ville de Venise
CANALETTO À VENISE
C’EST AU MUSÉE MAILLOL
19 SEPTEMBRE 2012 > 10 FÉVRIER 2013
billets coupe–file www.museemaillol.com
OUVERT TOUS LES JOURS DE 10H30 À 19H — NOCTURNE LE VENDREDI JUSQU’À 21H30
61, RUE DE GRENELLE 75007 PARIS — MÉTRO RUE DU BAC

CONTENTS
1- PRESS RELEASE 3
2- COMMISSION AND SCIENTIFIC COMITTEE 5
3- EXTRACTS FROM THE CATALOGUE 6
4- NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF WORKS 13
5- VISUAL DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR THE MEDIA 19
6- PRACTICAL INFORMATION 22
PRESS CONTACTS
AGENCE OBSERVATOIRE
68 rue Pernety
75014 Paris
Céline Echinard
01 43 54 87 71
celine@observatoire.fr
www.observatoire.fr
MUSÉE MAILLOL
59-61 rue de Grenelle
75007 Paris
Claude Unger
06 14 71 27 02
cunger@museemaillol.com
Elisabeth Apprédérisse
01 42 22 57 25
eapprederisse@museemaillol.com
2

1- PRESS RELEASE
Under the patronage of The City of Venice
MUSÉE MAILLOL
CANALETTO IN VENICE
19 September 2012 -10 February 2013
The Musée Maillol pays homage to Venice with the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Canaletto’s
Venetian works. The exhibition will be presented in partnership with the Foundation of Venice Civic
Museums which is preparing to put on a Francesco Guardi retrospective at the Correr Museum in
Venice to mark the 300 th anniversary of that Venetian painter’s birth.
Canaletto in Venice will be an exclusive occasion for visitors to enjoy the master’s vision of his city,
brought to life through his paintbrush. Along the canals we discover places, islands, squares and
monuments, views of a city that still retains its 18 th -century charm. The Venetian painter certainly
didn’t invent the veduta, or detailed cityscape, a genre that has ancient origins, but he helped to
develop it by giving his paintings a modernity that allowed him to overtake his masters.
Canaletto (1697-1768) is the most famous of the Venetian vedutisti of the 18 th century. Over the
centuries Antonio Canal has never fallen from favour; his works have always been eagerly sought after
by collectors. They seem to have an endless charm, unaffected by trends. Canaletto has the crystal
clarity of a man who was faithful to the spirit of the Enlightenment, with a very personal vision of reality.
His painting manages to capture the very essence of the light; it conveys a unique and sensual
shimmering.
The exhibition will bring together more than 50 carefully selected works, from the greatest museums
and some historic private collections. On display too will be his drawings and also the famous
sketchbook from about 1731, a rare loan by the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe Gallerie the Cabinet
of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery in Venice, which will be displayed open but which
can be fully explored on computers.
Visitors will also be able to see a copy, made by Venetian master craftsmen, of the optical chamber
used by Canaletto to make his drawings, thanks to a partnership with the superintendence of the
Polo Museale of the City of Venice and the research of Dario Maran. It is taken from Canaletto’s
original device, which was often used on a boat, made with carefully placed lenses that offered highly
precise images that were unique at that time. Visitors will be able to see for themselves just how
effective it was.
3

In recent times Canaletto has had a central role in a series of ground-breaking exhibitions about the
vedutisti, including the one in Rome curated by the much-missed Alessandro Bettagno with Bozena
Anna Kowalczyk; The Splendours of Venice in Treviso in 2009, by Giuseppe Pavanello and Alberto
Craievich; and more recently the outstanding shows in London and Washington, curated by Charles
Beddington.
The exhibition at the Musée Maillol aims to be the last in this decade-long cycle by allowing Canaletto
alone to lead the spectator around his city through his view paintings. The works on display will show
how the artist developed his style. The juxtapositioning of his paintings of the same view will show
how his early style, heavily influenced by the artist Marco Ricci and also by his training as a theatrical
scenery painter, gradually evolved into interpretations of reality. These were imbued with an
atmosphere that was both subtle and sublime, paving the way for painting that was to conquer
Europe.
4

2- COMMISSION AND SCIENTIFIC COMITTEE
• COMMISSION
ANNALISA SCARPA
An art historian who specialises in Venetian painting of the 18 th century and Venetian view painting.
After teaching at the University of Ca’ Foscari in Venice, alongside authorities on Venetian art such as
Pietro Zampetti, Alessandro Brettagno and especially Terisio Pignatti, she spent many years studying
Canaletto’s graphic art. With Ludovico Mucchi she published Nella Profondità dei Dipinti: La
Radiografia nell’indagine Pittorica (The Profundity of Painting: Radiography in Art Research), analysing
more than 200 Venetian view paintings using radiography.
She is the author of important works on 18 th -century Venetian art, Marco Ricci, Sebastiano Ricci and
Jacopo Amigoni. She has curated a number of major recent exhibitions: Settecento Veneciano at the
Academia of San Fernando in Madrid and at thr Museo ode Bellas Artes in Seville, as well as From
Canaletto to Tiepolo at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. She is the curator of the Fondazione A. F. Terruzzi
in Milan.
• SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
IRINA ARTEMIEVA, Curator of Venetian painting, the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
CHARLES BEDDINGTON, Art historian who was curator of two of the most recent and important
exhibitions dedicated to Canaletto: Canaletto in England: a Venetian Artist Abroad 1746-1755 at Yale
Centre for British Art, New Haven, 2006, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2007; as well as
Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals at the National Gallery in London, 2010 and the National Gallery of
Art in Washington DC in 2011.
Alberto CRAIEVICH, Curator, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice, and Professore
Emerito of the University of Ca’ Foscari
ALASTAIR LAING, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, the National Trust, London
FILIPPO PEDROCCO, Director, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice
LIONELLO PUPPI, President of the Centro Studi Tiziano e Cadore, Pieve di Cadore
ALAIN TAPIÉ, Chief Curator of Cultural Heritage
• PROJET DIRECTOR
PATRIZIA NITTI, Artistic Director of the Musée Maillol
• SCÉNOGRAPHY
HUBERT LE GALL
LA FONDAZIONE TERRUZZI
La Fondation possède environ mille oeuvres de peinture italienne du XVIIIe siècle, essentiellement
vénitienne : Canaletto, Bellotto, Sebastiano Ricci, Magnasco, Amigoni, Pellegrini, Antonio et
Gaspare Diziani, Piazzetta, Tiepolo, Guardi, Longhi, ainsi que des maîtres plus anciens tels que
Paolo Veneziano, Cariani, Paris Bordone, Carpioni, Heintz, Tintoret, Luca Giordano, Strozzi. Elle
possède également des œuvres du XIXe siècle, dont une importante sélection d’Ippolito Caffi.
Grâce au mécénat de Guido Angelo Terruzzi, la Villa Regina Margherita de Bordighera, récemment
rénovée, accueille une partie de la collection et des expositions temporaires.
5

3- EXTRACTS FROM THE CATALOGUE
• THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK
by Annalisa Perissa Torrini, director of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery,
Venice
The extraordinary sketchbook of Canaletto’s drawings, unique in the history of 18 th -century Venetian
art, has been in the keeping of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery in Venice
since 1949. It was a donation by Don Guido Gagnola, from the village of Gazzada Schianno in the
Varese region of Lombardy, who said he had received it from his father. His father had owned it since
1895 but didn’t know where it had come from 1 .
This precious volume, already bound at the time, was authenticated in August 1840 by Giuseppe
Borsato, who unfortunately was to put his heavy stamp on every page.
Not long after the sketchbook entered the Accademia collections, Vittorio Moschini 2 published two
articles about it, and a facsimile edition was produced by Terisio Pignatti in 1958, then by Giovanna
Nepi Scirè in 1997 3 . It has only been on public display in London in 1990, and in Venice in 1982, 1995
and 1999. The critical value of this jewel of the art of drawing – important well beyond its 18 th -century
context – is far greater than its artistic merit. Indeed it is hardly mentioned in the numerous
monographs and catalogues dedicated to the work of Canaletto, in which the sketches it contains are
treated as just part of the body of his some 500 drawings.
The sketches in this book are very precise and made with great care. They are preparatory drawings
representing the immediacy of a view, which will then be transformed in the painter’s mind when he
makes the canvases that are supposed to reproduce reality. In this respect they show the process of
Canaletto’s thinking, from the first idea to its development on paper, then on to the finished canvas.
The drawings are annotated with information and observations that he will use when he turns the
sketch into a painting. They reveal the way he in which he develops his works, which share a
distinctive perspective based on a gradual reduction in the planes, with shortened silhouettes on the
horizon. Based on topographical precision, Canaletto’s creative intelligence manages to combine all
the different elements very convincingly. His notes include the names of palaces and shops,
indications of a ferry or a gondola repair workshop, or he gives the exact number of windows or
columns. He doesn’t forget to note down the colours – brown, white, yellow, black, off-white, red,
ochre or yellow ochre – indicating whether their tones are light or dark. He also indicates sizes:
“wider”, “a bit longer”, “narrower”, “correct”. Materials, too, are mentioned – lead, stone, brick, wood
– and sites and even signs. When a panorama can’t be kept to one page, he divides it into sections
that are developed on different pages, which he calls “strips”: “first strip on left”, or “first strip on
1 Cf. G. Nepi Scirè, Accademia Galleries. History of the Drawings collections Milan, 1982, p. 17-18, 24, note 186. Letters
from 28 February and 15 May 1949 are conserved in the Archive of the Superintendence, Accademia Galleries, 2, Dons et
legs 118/33, Book of the sketches of Canaletto donated by Don Guido Gagnola di Gaza from Schianto (Varese).
2 A book of Canaletto sketches donated to the Accademia Galleries in Venice, in “Bollettino d’Arte”, 1949, p. 279, and the
book of Canaletto sketches to the Venetian Galleries, in “Arte Veneta”, 1950, p. 57-75.
3 T. Pignatti, The Notebook of Canaletto Sketches at the Venice Galleries, 1958; G. Nepi Scirè, Canaletto’s Notebook,
Venice, 1997; Canaletto. The Venetian Notebook, edited by A. Perissa Torrini, Venice, 2012.
6

ight” 4 . And if a bell tower is too big to be kept within the dimensions of the page, and therefore within
the frame of the optical chamber on which the page was placed 5 , he cuts off a bit of the lower part,
as can be seen on the pages showing Santa Maria Formosa, the dome of the church of St Simeon
Piccolo and the façade of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul 6 .
As the book is a collection of seven sections, and not a unified whole, it’s not possible to establish
through historical or artistic research the date each painting was made 7 . So we tend to examine each
section separately. Thus the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore, outlined in broad strokes, still has a
spire on page 2v, whereas in 1728 it is shown in a bulb shape, only found in the first section, while the
smaller seventh section can be considered separately 8 .
(...)
Even if drawing is a direct approach to reality, that doesn’t mean that things can’t be made bigger or
smaller, highlighted or underplayed by the sort of “poetic licence” described by the painter Anton
Maria
Zanetti. This served to enhance the true novelty of Canaletto’s painting, which ensured “that the eye is
deceived and believes it is seeing the real thing and not the painted version”, as Guarienti wrote in
1753. “He always goes to the site and takes everything down on the spot,” the Verona painter
Alessandro Marchesini said of him in a letter in 1725-26. And Zanetti claimed that “in his paintings he
joins pictorial licence to nature with such economy that his works appear to be real.” As Corboz
points out, he had understood how distortions of reality could seem plausible, like the scenery in a
theatre. That’s exactly what Canaletto is doing in the pages of his sketchbook, presenting scenes in
the style of theatrical decoration, as he learnt in Rome from the scene-painter Andrea Pozzo. And, as
recent studies of his modus operandi 9 have suggested, he did this as soon as he started using the
optical chamber. In his study, Dario Maran manages to establish its exact position, based on the
architectural perspectives in the sketchbook, which he analyses (p 21v-25r), as well as suggestions
for other sections. Maran shows how, by turning the mirror inside the chamber, buildings can be seen
4 In the 8-page series, from p. 10v to p. 14; for example, Canaletto notes “banda drita” and “banda sinistra”, “l’isteso”,
“altretanto”, “taca a mezzo”, meaning link to the centre, or “taca il passatà”, meaning link to the preceding, and “parti”,
meaning bring them together.
5 Or fastened, as in section VII, where the perforations can still be seen (Cf. B. Biciocchi, An enigmatic work tool, in
Canaletto, The Venetian Notebook, cit. 2012, p. 54-69), probably made to fix the sheet while the tracing was being carried
out.
6 Page 17, the detail of La Specola – which couldn’t be shown on the preceding page because of lack of space as it was
too low for the optical chamber – is suspended in the sky, an expediency the artist resorts to when the pages of the
sketchbook are too small, especially for the bell towers and for La Specola.
7 The entire sketchbook is not unified but, according to critics, covers some ten years, from 1734 to 1744, as put forward
by Moschini and Pallucchini, while Corboz suggests 1731 to 1746, and Bettagno between the end of 1720 and the
beginning of 1730. Giobanna Nepi Scirè, on the other hand, suggests that it was made between the end of the 1720s and
the middle of the following decade, while Constable and Links believe that most of the sketches should be placed around
1730, apart from page 2v, which they think dates from 1726 to 1727, and the rest a little later. Finally Ragghianti believes the
whole sketchbook was made before 1730 and Pignatti dates it between 1728 and 1730.
8 Or with the rest, as it shows no stylistic or thematic features that could support any other date than 1731.
9 In Canaletto. The Venetian Notebook, cit. 2012, particularly Dario Maran, p. 40-53.
7

simultaneously, and that the entire scene unfurls on a tilt like a theatrical set “for a more truthful
appearance of reality”. He also shows that the instrument must have been used on a boat for all the
views of the Grand Canal, St Mark’s basin and the canals. In addition, various studies have brought
further insights. One fundamental point is that, by following almost to the letter the rules of 18 th -
century theatrical scenography, the field of vision of these cityscapes in always contained inside a
right angle, including the longest section in the sketchbook, showing St Mark’s basin.
Thus, starting from reality, traced with the help of optical instruments with “scientific” precision that
only he knew how to make best use of, Canaletto managed to paint views of a real city. That’s what
was demanded by his foreign clients, who loved Venice, just as the viewer wants to see it and
remember it today, almost as a cinematic sequence in a film made in the 18 th century.
•VIEWS OF VENICE AND ENGLISH PATRONS
by FRANCIS RUSSEL, Deputy Chairman, Old Master and Early British painting, Christie’s
There are numerous views of Venice in renaissance devotional pictures, but it was only in the early
18th Century that Venetian topography became a significant preoccupation for major artists, of whom
the first was the peripatetic Gaspare Vanvitelli, few of whose Venetian views were supplied to English
patrons. The earliest significant native master of the genre was Luca Carlevarijs. The 4th Earl of
Manchester, who was ambassador in Venice in 1707-8—at a time when Marlborough’s victories in
Flanders greatly increased the significance of such an embassy—commissioned the artist to record
his official entry (fig. ). Manchester persuaded Marco Ricci and Pellegrini to return with him to England,
and just as they, and Ricci’s brother Sebastiano, worked for other noblemen in his circle when in
England, so Carlevarijs was to receive commissions from other British patrons, including Lord
Bateman.
In retrospect it is not difficult to see why the young Canaletto was established by the late 1720s as the
vedutista of choice for the English. His artistic abilities were of course self-evident. He was helped by
the illness and subsequent death of Carlevarijs, by McSwinny and, above all, by the leading English
merchant at Venice, Joseph Smith, who acted as banker for many of those who made the Grand
Tour. Both men were known to the 2nd Duke of Richmond, himself a grandson of King Charles II, but
a committed Whig: he was an early patron of the artist and in 1746 was to commission two of his
finest London views; and it was he who, in 1744, secured Smith’s appointment as Consul in Venice.
The list of Canaletto’s major patrons in the 1730s reads like a roll call of the Whig establishment: the
Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole owned a masterpiece, while the closely related dukes of Bedford
and Marlborough commissioned extensive sets of canvasses, and numerous others shopped less
immodestly. Smith orchestrated many of their purchases, but he could only do so because there was
a genuine taste for Venetian views, even from individuals—like indeed Sir Robert Walpole—who had
not made the Grand Tour.
Canaletto was a meticulous and methodical artist. And of course he could not contend with demand.
In recent decades, due to the work of Charles Beddington, Bozena Anna Kowalcyk and others, we
have come to understand much more about the versions of his compositions, often larger than the
prototypes and invariably more loosely and therefore quickly executed, which were supplied by
Canaletto’s teenage nephew, Bernardo Bellotto. Some at least of these seem to have been marketed,
apparently without compunction, as by Canaletto himself. But uncle and nephew had no monopoly.
Pictures by their gifted contemporary, Michele Marieschi, were supplied in considerable number, most
notably to the 4th Earl of Carlisle, who was assisted in Venice by the antiquary, Antonio Maria Zanetti:
the incomparable View of the Bacino (now at Boston, fig. ) and a fine group of early Bellottos was
complemented at Castle Howard by a set of smaller views by Marieschi.
8

•CANALETTO, BEYOND IMITATION, A QUEST FOR ILLUSION
By Alain Tapié, Chief Curator of Heritage
The aesthetic agenda of the greatest of the vedutisti, Antonio Canal, seems to have had many
elements: to expand space; to anticipate the desire for panoramas that was to preoccupy artists
involved in colonial conquests throughout the first half of the 19 th century; to display monuments so
as to be able to see the smallest details; to make the dream of an intimate monumentality available to
everyone through these views. It was also to offer to increasing numbers of people the privilege of
embracing Venice by purchasing an expensive “veduta”, carefully composed by the artist so as to
create a double image, in which the expensive finite, its economic value, is combined with the
heavenly infinite, its poetical perspective. It was also about establishing different subjects, without
worrying about the makeshift craft of drawing them with an optical chamber, even if they looked
similar when seen in the series of paintings in which they featured. It was also about treating the air
that circulates between the great buildings so as to magnify them, much as the Impressionists were to
do with crude industrial landscapes; ensuring that every urban fragment contributes to “the glory of
the city”. In all this, Canaletto, like the Impressionists, favoured the visual projection of a perception
that was orderly but without any ranking.
This projection uses a different approach to reproducing scenes from the one made so familiar to us
through our exposure to Impressionism, considered the model of modernity. Think of Monet and
Boudin, who both painted in Venice, and who brought their subjects to life through texture, and a
naturalistic, organic approach. Very differently, but equally audaciously, Canaletto gives his floating
figures a bodiless physical independence as though identifying social entities who punctuate the
space in infinite numbers, and who proliferate, calm and static, in the field of vision opened up by the
scale and expanse. This complex layout opens up a dream world and helps to create the sort of
illusions found in photography and cinema. Canaletto took the idea of composition using optics from
Luca Carlevarijs, who in turn had inherited the Flemish meticulousness found in the landscapes of
Pieter Brueghel and his contemporaries. Through this intricate weaving, details attain the significant
role of signposting the world. Using this model, Canaletto explores a fundamental principle: painting
not what is seen but what is – bricks, stones, paving stones, clefts, flaws, cracks – and at the same
time painting what is not, but could be seen.
(...)
It is fair to say that Canaletto sometimes used the optical chamber when he needed to save time. So
how can we assess the structural autonomy of paintings that, especially in the later works, attained
such a lightness of touch that it seems skim the surface rather than digging in? In the urban
landscapes there was a practical approach that gave pride of place to invention. When Canaletto set
up a veduta, it was with the aim of researching it in depth. It seems paradoxical for a subject
dominated by different planes: lagoon, facades, ground and sky. People, boats and gondolas are set
out so as to contribute to the same feeling of distance. The optical effect thus created distributes the
figures in a way that is both reasoned and random. The different planes, like the signs, buildings and
human figures, are close and distant at the same time. A systematic adjustment of the bright light
gives each of these figures the micro-proportions that enable us to determine social bearing without
having to come up against anyone’s personality. Canaletto relied on graphic dynamics for his human
figures, adjusting their appearances, bordering on the superficial and the outline. The ratio is reversed
for the skies, the lagoon and the quaysides, which come to life through graphic resonance and bring
out a monumental density. The rest is achieved by the broken tones and daylight colours of the
Mannerist tradition, giving a feeling of unity, and bringing continuity to the different planes. The light
and shade simply accompanies the reliefs, which gives the views a clarity without contrast, making all
parts of each composition equally accessible to the eye.
9

The sculptural sensibility of Canaletto’s images is not changed by the their optical structuring. Each
view has an element of pure painting that doesn’t diminish the use of the camera obscura. It allows
him to transfer distant or narrow spaces to paper, combining many points of view. The poetic tones
are not arranged symmetrically. The speed at which the painter works corresponds to his aim to
reproduce rather than represent. Thus the painter corrects the overall perspective, made up of partial
views, so as to achieve a consistent view, by rebalancing the vanishing points that rise or fall
excessively. He works on the stereotype of a first plane that is generally dark, to act as a foil, a second
plane that presents squares, gardens and waterways, a third plane containing edifices and facades,
and a higher fourth plane where we at last reach the sky. The achievement of the vedutiste consists in
measuring the difficulty of the relationship between the details and the overall structure. There are
three types of details and they are a source of invention, things that the artist puts in because he
knows them, things that we shouldn’t see. They cause a tension within the image towards hyperreality,
metaphorical details: a fountain, a ruin, a column, a bit of vegetation; they act like a florid and
capricious commentary on the objective base on which the space is built. There are the details of
human life: those “figurines” that stand their ground in distant poses, the theatre of the everyday.
Canaletto, that great painter of the veduta, shows his complete loyalty to the optical perception of
reality by giving an intense and suspensive character to his compositions. The image acquires all the
necessary simplicity.
In a romanticized view of art history, Alain Buisine describes the daily work of Canaletto: “It’s quite
right to call it hand-made; it’s heavy, it soon causes ankylosis in the arm. You have to know how to
use it, to be able to choose the right lens, to adjust the lenses so that the image is almost up straight,
otherwise it will be blurred and inverted, and to correct the aberrations and distortions of perspective
that it can cause. Finally, it’s essential to make this devilish optical machine stable and fully horizontal
so that the rough tiling of the Venetian campi is never flat. It’s not at all as easy as people think, who
naively assume that you just have to make a copy, that the drawing is finished in a trice and perfect.
That would be too good to be true, and anyway it would mean that there would be no more need for
professional draughtsmen. It’s very practical for expanding the space and doing a first sketch.
Anyway all his vedutisti colleagues use it for this, too. It allows him to draw a simple, rapid scaraboto
sketch, a large overall view that will give him his very first panoramic outline. … The important part
comes later, when he divides this rough sketch into different sections, which he reworks in minute
detail by hand and on the spot.”
That is the working method that allows Canaletto to meet his documentary obligations, to grasp exact
architectural details and ceremonial rituals, since he is free of the succession of scenes and situations
in the time sequence of events. Very different from the imitative process that tries to capture mobility,
Canaletto creates poses in every scene, as though time is standing still.
By using an optical chamber Canaletto brings out the detail, captured for its own sake, yet used again
in an overall unity, by a phenomenon of immersion due to the transformation through colour. All the
chance signs and picturesque details thus become superfluous. It is the modernity of Canaletto that
highlights the break with mere copying thanks to the way he captures illusion by optical means. The
imagination that is liberated both by the structure and the layout of the details does not deprive the
viewer of his desire for reality. In his Guide for Lovers of the Louvre Museum, Théophile Gautier offers
this invitation: “If you haven’t been to Venice, stop in front of Canaletto’s painting showing the
Madonna della Salute at the entrance to the Grand Canal and you will have made the journey. You
will learn no more from the reality, the entire illusion is complete.” Gautier’s opinion goes to the heart of
the matter, removing the need to resort to reference, for the pictorial process follows a different route.
The Impressionist painters did much the same thing.
10

•FACES AND MASKS.
FROM THE "IMAGO URBIS"OF THE MYTH OF VENICE TO ITS DECONSTRUCTION IN
THE "VEDUTA"
By Lionello Puppi, President of the Titian and Cadore Study Centre, Pieve di Cadore, Emeritus
Professor at the University of Ca’ Foscari
For the British traveller William Way (and all the pilgrims going to the Holy Land), the last stage before
facing the sea, with its disagreeable troubles and terrifying dangers, was Veneciam, civitatem nobilem
et grandem, which appeared in the splendour of a bright and living foretaste of Jersusalem.
An earthly sign of the heavenly Jerusalem (Puppi, 1982 and 1994, passim) its image of the Doge’s
Palace and its palatine chapel, apparently reminiscent of Jerusalem, was constantly passed on. It had
already been seen in Reuwich, Schedel and Carpaccio, not forgetting its presence in the background
of The Judgement of Solomon (Florence, Uffizi Galleries), in the Virgin Reading (Oxford, Ashmolean
Museum), and the Death of Adonis by Sebastian del Piombo (Florence, Uffizi Galleries). It is also to be
found in Titian, in Saint Christopher (Venice, Doge’s Palace), and The Virgin with Saints (Ancona,
Museo Civico), in Andrea Schiavone’s Annunciation (Belluno, church of St Pietro), the Flight into Egypt
by Girolamo Savoldo, the Eternal Father Giving his Blessing, by Bonifacio dei’ Pitati (Venice,
Accademia Galleries) and in the Foundation of the Hospice of the Crociferi, by Jacopo Palma the
Younger (Venice, Oratory of the Crociferi).
The composite visual image of Venice is even more eloquent when it is accompanied by processions
(in the great canvas by Gentile Bellini, today in the Accademia Galleries in Venice, or in prints, such as
the one showing the Nuptials of the Doge and the Sea, by Johannes Amman Jost, in the fine copy at
the Metropolitan Museum of New York, or the Cortège in St Mark’s Square, published in 1610 by
Giacomo Franco). With this in mind, we should note how this aspect was taken up and transfigured in
the imaginary views of the city produced between the end of the 16th century and the last years of
the 17th century, of which Stefania Mason has produced an interesting anthology, recently analysed
and discussed by Pedrocco (2001, p. 30-37).
A symbolic reading seems more appropriate still when you look at the interaction between Mercury
and Neptune, demonstrated by Ridolfi (1648, quoted by Sinding Larsen, 1980, p. 44), in the
iconographic design of the Triumph of Venice that decorates the central medallion of the ceiling in the
hall of the Pregadi in the Doge’s Palace. Especially because it takes centre stage, dominating all the
other components of this symbolic machine in the nucleus of the building that was designed for the
exercise of “the wisdom of the state”. As such, the secular fortune of such a position has been
overlooked, whether by chance or through laziness. As has the influence of the very famous
representation of the Utopian island, or the map of “the city of Temestian Mexico” that appears in the
third volume of Giambattista Ramusio’s Navigazioni, or again in the vedute of Benedetto Bordon and
Salvioni (cf. Schulz, 1970, and Cassini, 1971).
The fashion for vedute was born, evolved and developed obviously influenced by the success it found
with these well-born travellers who swarmed to Venice. They were supplied with “postcards” to keep
alive the emotional experience of having been there through a selection of sites that could capture the
imagination, to make them believe they were among the myriad walk-on figures that were identical in
the draft and varied in the finished product. To echo the observations of Starobinski, it was a
production “that is not dissipative” but “variations on a theme”. As André Corboz (1994, p. 26-27)
wrote so acutely: “Despite the extreme varieties of tone, all these Venetian views progressively create
a copy which becomes a substitute for the city itself (both symbolic and a reality in stone), to the point
that the real one is evaluated and judged on the basis of these views.”
11

It is precisely the flexibility of this art, long considered not really “noble”, and thus less subject to the
rules of historical, religious or portrait painting, which, in the particular environment of 18th-century
Venice, offers to a Canaletto or a Francis Guardi (Corboz, 1994, p. 31-34) the chance to work
brilliantly and freely, enabling them to scale the heights of lyrical and melancholic quality in their
paintings.
12

4- LIST OF WORKS
ANTONIO CANAL DIT CANALETTO
• PAINTINGS
Il Canal Grande da Palazzo Balbi
Le Grand Canal, vu du palais Balbi
1726-1728 environ
Huile sur toile
45 x 73 cm
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
La Scala dei Giganti in Palazzo Ducale
L'escalier des Géants du Palazzo Ducale
1755-1756
Huile sur toile
174 x 136 cm
Grande Bretagne/ Alnwick, Collection of the Duke of
Northumberland
Il molo dal bacino di San Marco
Le môle vu du bassin de San Marco
1740-1745
Huile sur toile
54 x 71 cm
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera
Le isole di San Cristoforo, San Michele e Murano
dalle Fondamenta Nuove
Les îles San Cristoforo, San Michele et Murano vues
des Fondamenta Nuove
1724-1725 environ
Huile sur toile
67x 127 cm
Saint-Pétersbourg, Musée d’Etat de l’Ermitage
La chiesa di San Giovanni dei Battuti a Murano, con
Venezia nel fondo
L'église de San Giovanni dei Battuti à Murano, et
Venise dans le lointain
1724-1725 environ
Huile sur toile
66 X 127,5 cm
Saint-Pétersbourg, Musée d’Etat de l’Ermitage
Basilica della Salute e la Dogana, dai pressi di
Palazzo Cornaro
La Basilique de la Salute et la Douane vues du Palais
Cornaro
1725-1730
Huile sur toile
46,5 x 91 cm
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen
Piazza San Marco, verso la Basilica
La place San Marco, vers la Basilique
1735-1738
Huile sur toile
80x127 cm
Collection particulière
L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Chiesa della
Salute
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la
Salute
1740
Huile sur toile
72 x 112,5 cm
Collection particulière
Piazza San Marco, con la Basilica e la chiesa di San
Geminiano
La Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique et l'église San
Geminiano
1730 environ
Huile sur toile
61 x 95,9 cm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Museum of Fine
Art, Houston
Cannaregio
Le Pont des trois arches sur le canal Cannaregio
1730 environ
Huile sur toile
48,6 x 78,7 cm
Collection particulière
Il Canal Grande, fra la chiesa di Santa Croce e quella
di San Geremia
Le Grand Canal, entre l'église de Santa Croce et
l'église San Geremia
1730 environ
Huile sur toile
48,3 x 77,5 cm
Collection particulière
Il Canal Grande, con il Ponte di Rialto, da Sud
Le Grand Canal et le pont du Rialto, vu du
Sud
1733-1735
Huile sur toile
68,5 x 92 cm
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo
Barberini
Il Canal Grande, dal Ponte di Rialto, verso Ca'Foscari
Le Grand Canal, vu du pont du Rialto, vers la
Ca'Foscari
1733-1735
13

Huile sur toile
69 x 94 cm
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo
Barberini
Rio dei Mendicanti
Le Rio des Mendiants
1723
Huile sur toile
144 x 207 cm
Venezia, Ca’ Rezzonico, museo del Settecento
Veneziano
L'ingresso al Canal Grande, dalla
Piazzetta
L'entrée du Grand Canal vue de la
Piazzetta
1730
Huile sur toile
58,5 x 102 cm
Grand Bretagne, Knutsford
The Egerton of Tatton Park
La Riva degli Schiavoni, col Palazzo Ducale, verso
est
La Riva degli Schiavoni et le Palais ducal
1730
Huile sur toile
110,5 x 185,5 cm
Grande Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton
Park
La Punta della dogana
La pointe de la Douane
1740-1745
Huile sur toile
27,6 x 37,3 cm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni
LTD, Londres
La Piazzetta, verso il molo
La Piazzetta, vers le môle
1740-1745
Huile sur toile
27,9 x 37,3 cm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni
LTD, Londres
Le Chiuse di Dolo
L'écluse de Dolo
1763
Huile sur toile
31 x 45 cm
Courtesy of Robilant + Voena, London - Milano
La Torre di Malghera
La Tour de Malghera
1756 environ
Huile sur toile
31,5 x 46,5 cm
Courtesy of Robilant + Voena, London - Milano
Il Canal Grande, da Palazzo Balbi
Le Grand Canal vu du Palais Balbi
1730
Huile sur toile
61 x 99 cm
Bergame, museo dell’ Accademia Carrara
La Chiesa del Redentore
L'église du Redentore
1747-1755
Huile sur toile
60 x 94.5 cm
Collection particulière
La Chiesa di San Geremia e l'ingresso a
Cannaregio
L'église San Geremia et l'entrée de
Cannaregio
1735-1742
Huile sur toile
46 x 63 cm
Vienne, collection du Prince de Liechtenstein
Ingresso al Canal Grande, con la Basilica della
Salute
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la
Salute
1730
Huile sur toile
53 x 70,5 cm
Milan, FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Villa Necchi
Campiglio, collection Alighiero ed Emilietta de’ Micheli
Capriccio col Ponte di Rialto secondo il progetto del
Palladio, la Basilica di San Marco e uno scorcio di
Palazzo Chiericati a Vicenza
Caprice, avec le pont du Rialto d'après le projet de
Palladio, la basilique San Marco, et le palais
Chiericati à Vicence
1745 environ
Huile sur toile
60 x 82 cm
Parme, Galleria Nazionale
Isole della laguna nord viste da San Pietro in Castello
Iles de la lagune nord vues de San Pietro in
Castello
1724-1725
Huile sur toile
63 x 108 cm
Moscou, Musée d’Etat des Beaux-Arts Pouchkine
Isole della laguna nord da San Pietro in Castello e
dall’Arsenale
Iles de la lagune nord vues de San Pietro in Castello
et de l'Arsenal
1724-1725
Huile sur toile
63 x 108 cm
14

Moscou, Musée d’Etat des Beaux-Arts Pouchkine
La Piazzetta, verso la Torre dell'Orologio
La Piazzetta et la tour de l'Horloge
1728-1729
Huile sur toile
135,5 x 137,5 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest Métropole Océane
Festa notturna alla chiesa di San Pietro in
Castello
Fête de nuit à l'église San Pietro in
Castello
1745 environ
Huile sur toile
97 x 131 cm
Londres, collection Gert-Rudolf Flick
Il Canal Grande verso il rio di Cannaregio
Le Canal Grande vers le rio di Cannaregio
1745-1750
Huile sur toile
46 x 78,5 cm
Venise, Collection della Cassa di Risparmio di
Venezia
L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Basilica della
Salute
L'entrée au Grand Canal et la Basilique de la
Salute
1745-1750
Huile sur toile
46 x 78,5 cm
Venise, Collection della Cassa di Risparmio di
Venezia
Piazza San Marco, con il prospetto della Basilica e
del Palazzo Ducale, la Loggetta e il Campanile di
scorcio
La Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique
environ 1747
Huile sur toile
56 x 69 cm
Collection particulière
Il Ponte di Rialto, da sud
Le Pont du Rialto, vu du Sud
1730-1735
Huile sur toile
53 x 70,5 cm
Collection particulière
Le Canal Grande vu du Campo San Vio
Le Grand Canal, vu du Campo San Vio, vers la
Basilique de la Salute
1723 environ
Huile sur toile
84,7 x 120 cm
Villa Vauban - Musée d'Art de la Ville de Luxembourg
Veduta del Bacino da Riva degli Schiavoni verso la
Basilica della Salute
Vue du bassin de la Riva degli Schiavoni vers la
Basilique de la Salute
1726-28
Huile sur toile
47 x 59 cm
Collection particulière
La Basilica di San Marco verso San Geminiano
Basilique San Marco et le campo San Basso
1722 environ
Huile sur toile
41 x 59 cm
Collection particulière
Veduta della laguna con ponte
Vue d'une île de la lagune avec un pont
1730-1740
Huile sur toile
23,8 x 39 cm
Collection particulière
Palco con attori della commedia dell'arte Piazza San
Marco con sfondo San Gimignano
La Commedia dell'arte en Place San Marco
1720-23
Huile sur toile
25 x 32,5 cm
Collection particulière
Veduta della Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
Vue de la Basilique di Santa Maria della Salute
1756-1767
Huile sur toile
48,4 x 35 cm
Courtesy of Collection Fenici
La Piazzetta verso la Basilica della Salute
La Piazzetta vers la Basilique de la Salute
1723 environ
Huile sur toile
129 x 127 cm
Collection particulière
Piazza San Marco verso la Basilica e Palazzo Ducale
con la Loggetta sulla destra
Vue de la Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique et le
Palazzo Ducale avec la Loggetta sur la
droite
1760 environ
Huile sur toile
57 x 70 cm
Collection particulière
15

• DRAWINGS
Quaderno dei disegni Cagnola
Carnet de croquis de Canaletto
encre sur papier
1745-1750
175 x 235 mm
Venezia, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe delle Gallerie
dell'Accademia
Case a Santa Marta
Habitations à Santa Marta (recto et verso)
1758 environ
plume et encre foncée sur traces de
crayon
180 x 283 mm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano
Lapicirella
Santa Marta, al limite della Laguna
Santa Marta, à l’extrémité de la lagune (recto et
verso)
1758 environ
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée sur traces de
crayon
175 x 282 mm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano
Lapiccirella
Il Canal Grande vicino a Palazzo Foscari
Le Canal Grande près de Palazzo Foscari (recto et
verso)
1758 environ
papier blanc, plume et encre brune sur traces de
crayon
262 x 193 mm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano
Lapiccirella
Piazza San Marco verso Sud-Est
Place San Marco vers Sud-Est
1740-43
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée
142 x 285 mm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano
Lapiccirella
Scuola Grande di San Marco
1739 environ
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée
185 x 205 mm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano
Lapiccirella
Scuola Grande di San Marco
1739 environ
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée, pierre noire sur
le verso
171 x 205 mm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano
Lapiccirella
Capriccio
1765 environ
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée sur traces de
crayon
185 x 275 mm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano
Lapiccirella
Porte del Dolo
Les Portes de Dolo
1763
papier blanc, plume, craie rouge, encre et
lavis
Collection particulière
• GRAVURES ET CHAMBRE OPTIQUE
La Tour de Malghera
après 1733
Eau-forte
294 x 424 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
Mestre
après 1733
Eau-forte
294 x 424 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
Le Porte del Dolo
Les portes du Dolo
après 1733
Eau-forte
296 x 426 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
La Libreria
après 1733
Eau-forte
142 x 205 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
La Piera del Bando
après 1733
Eau-forte
141 x 208 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
Mercato sul Molo
Marché sur le môle
après 1733
Eau-forte
142 x 207 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
16

Le Prigioni
Les prisons
après 1733
Eau-forte
141 x 208 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
Monumento equestre
Monument équestre
après 1733
Eau-forte
139 x 205 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
Le Procuratie Nuove a S. Ziminian
après 1733
Eau-forte
143 x 209 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
La Terrazza
La terrasse
après 1733
Eau-forte
132 x 207 mm
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
Paesaggio con pellegrino in preghiera
Paysage avec pèlerin en prière
après 1733
Eau-forte
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni
EN CONTREPOINT
Bernardo Canal
Il Canal Grande con il Ponte di Rialto
Le Canal Grande avec le Ponte du Rialto
1735-1740
Huile sur toile
186 x 306 cm
Collection particulière
Francesco Guardi
Regata in Canal Grande all'altezza dell'Ambasciata di
Francia in Palazzo Mocenigo della Trezza
Regate sur le Canal Grande à la hauteur de
l'Ambassade de France, Palazzo Mocenigo della Trezza
1791
Huile sur toile
45 x 57 cm
Collection particulière
Francesco Guardi
Bird's Eye view of Venice
Vue de Venise à vol d'oiseau
1740
Huile sur toile
110 x 190 cm
Londres, MOD Art Collection Ministry of Defence
Peintre vénitien du XVIIIe siècle
Ritratto di Canaletto
Portrait de Canaletto
Huile sur toile
80,2 x 66,8 cm
Collection particulière
Camera ottica
Chambre optique de Canaletto
XVIIIème siècle
Bois, verre et miroir
380 x 242 x 225 mm
Venise, Museo Correr
Manufacture vénitienne
Maquette du projet pour le Palazzo Corner della
Regina
XVIIIe siècle
Bois taillé
Venise, museo Correr
Manufacture vénitienne
Stemma Michiel
début XVIIe siècle
Bois taillé, peint avec dorure
Venise, museo Correr
17

Canaletto’s optical chamber
Venice, 18 th century
Wood, glass and mirrors
38 x 24.2 x 22.5cm
Venice, Correr Museum
“Among the different models of optical chamber, the camera obscura was the most often used,
especially by Canaletto, who gave his name to the one called “A. Canal”, preserved at the Correr
Museum in Venice.
“In this model an interior mirror tilted at 45 degrees captured the rays of light through a fixed focallength
lens, which send them to the upper side of the box above which is a screen of opalescent
frosted glass, a horizontal plane on which the operator places sheets on which he can trace the
buildings that appear.
“The instrument has both advantages and limits: as a result the mirror intercepts the visual pyramid of
the external image and reflects it onto the frame. Compared with a simple inverted image, this one is
markedly clearer and the process is facilitated by the fact that the plane on which the image is
returned is horizontal. However, even when the orientation of the image from top to bottom is correct
(when it’s not reversed) the left-right inversion remains. So the image only has the correct direction if it
is observed through the sheet, which necessitates a second phase of tracings. “Another limitation is
caused by the frosted glass. In fact with this type of camera obscura the operator has to use the most
transparent paper possible on which to trace his drawing. And the quality of the image also depends
on the instrument’s fixed focal length.”
Dario Maran
The Musée Maillol has funded the reconstruction of Canaletto’s optical chamber according to original
plans, under the supervision of Dario Maran, author of the essay: “Canaletto and the use of the optical
chamber” (in the exhibition catalogue). This optical chamber will be open to the public for the duration
of the exhibition.
18

5- VISUALS DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR THE MEDIA
1-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
Il Canal Grande da Palazzo Balbi
Le Grand Canal, vu du palais Balbi
1726-1728 environ
Huile sur toile
45 x 73 cm
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
© Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le
Attività Culturali
2-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
L'ingresso al Canal Grande, dalla Piazzetta
L'entrée du Grand Canal vue de la Piazzetta
1730
Huile sur toile
58,5 x 102 cm
Grande-Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton
Park
© NTPL/John Bethell
3-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
La Riva degli Schiavoni, col Palazzo Ducale, verso
est
La Riva degli Schiavoni et le Palais Ducal
1730
Huile sur toile
110,5 x 185,5 cm
Grande-Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton
Park
© NTPL/John Bethell
19

4-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
Ingresso al Canal Grande, con la Basilica della
Salute
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la
Salute
1730
Huile sur toile
53 x 70,5 cm
Milan, FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Villa Necchi
Campiglio, collection Alighiero ed Emilietta de’
Micheli
© Mario Govino, Fotografo
5-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Chiesa della
Salute
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la
Salute
1740
Huile sur toile
72 x 112,5 cm
Collection particulière
© Collection particulière / DR
6-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
Il molo dal bacino di San Marco
Le môle vu du bassin de San Marco
1740-1745
Huile sur toile
54 x 71 cm
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera
© Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le
Attività Culturali
7-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
La Punta della dogana
La pointe de la Douane
1740-1745
Huile sur toile
27,6 x 37,3 cm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni
LTD, Londres
© Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD
20

8-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
La Piazzetta, verso il molo
La Piazzeta, vers le môle
1740-1745
Huile sur toile
27,9 x 37,3 cm
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni
LTD, Londres
© Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD
9-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
La Chiesa del Redentore
L'église du Redentore
1747-1755
Huile sur toile
60 x 94,5 cm
Collection particulière.
© Galerie de Jonckheere
10-
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto
La Scala dei Giganti in Palazzo Ducale
L'escalier des Géants du Palazzo Ducale
1755-1756
Huile sur toile
174 x 136 cm
Grande Bretagne/ Alnwick, Collection of the Duke of
Northumberland
© Collection of the Duke of Northumberland
21

5- PRACTICAL INFORMATION
MUSÉE MAILLOL - DINA VIERNY FOUNDATION
59-61, rue de Grenelle
75007 Paris
Tél : 01 42 22 59 58
Fax : 01 42 84 14 44
Métro : Rue du Bac
Bus : n° 63, 68, 69, 83, 84
www.museemaillol.com
OPENING TIMES
Everyday from 10.30 am to 7 pm, including public holidays.
Late night on Fridays, until 9.30 pm
TICKET PRICES
Full rate : 11 euros
Concessions : 9 euros
Free for under-11s
BOOK ON LINE
www.museemaillol.com
www.fnac.com
Descriptions of 25 major works are available on the audioguide and the museum's smartphone app
RESTAURANT
Italian restaurant " La Cortigiana "
Open everyday from 10.30 am to 5 pm. Private bookings are available for mornings and evenings.
CHILDREN'S WORKSHOPS
« The mysteries of Venice »
Lasts 90 minutes (visit + workshop + snack)
Open to children aged 7 to 11
Price : €18
From 26 September 2012 to 9 February 2013
Every Wednesday from 3pm to 4.30pm
Every Saturday, 11am to 12.30pm
During school holidays contact us for dates
Reservations : enfants@museemaillol.com
PRESS CONTACTS
AGENCE OBSERVATOIRE
68 rue Pernety - 75014 Paris
Céline Echinard
01 43 54 87 71
celine@observatoire.fr
www.observatoire.fr
MUSÉE MAILLOL
Claude Unger
06 14 71 27 02
cunger@museemaillol.com
Elisabeth Apprédérisse
01 42 22 57 25
eapprederisse@museemaillol.com
22