dp canaletto anglais - copie - Musée Maillol
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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<br />
Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Photo © Volker – H. Schneider<br />
PRESS RELEASE<br />
sous le haut patronage de la Ville de Venise<br />
CANALETTO À VENISE<br />
C’EST AU MUSÉE MAILLOL<br />
19 SEPTEMBRE 2012 > 10 FÉVRIER 2013<br />
billets coupe–file www.museemaillol.com<br />
OUVERT TOUS LES JOURS DE 10H30 À 19H — NOCTURNE LE VENDREDI JUSQU’À 21H30<br />
61, RUE DE GRENELLE 75007 PARIS — MÉTRO RUE DU BAC
CONTENTS<br />
1- PRESS RELEASE 3<br />
2- COMMISSION AND SCIENTIFIC COMITTEE 5<br />
3- EXTRACTS FROM THE CATALOGUE 6<br />
4- NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF WORKS 13<br />
5- VISUAL DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR THE MEDIA 19<br />
6- PRACTICAL INFORMATION 22<br />
PRESS CONTACTS<br />
AGENCE OBSERVATOIRE<br />
68 rue Pernety<br />
75014 Paris<br />
Céline Echinard<br />
01 43 54 87 71<br />
celine@observatoire.fr<br />
www.observatoire.fr<br />
MUSÉE MAILLOL<br />
59-61 rue de Grenelle<br />
75007 Paris<br />
Claude Unger<br />
06 14 71 27 02<br />
cunger@museemaillol.com<br />
Elisabeth Apprédérisse<br />
01 42 22 57 25<br />
eapprederisse@museemaillol.com<br />
2
1- PRESS RELEASE<br />
Under the patronage of The City of Venice<br />
MUSÉE MAILLOL<br />
CANALETTO IN VENICE<br />
19 September 2012 -10 February 2013<br />
The <strong>Musée</strong> <strong>Maillol</strong> pays homage to Venice with the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Canaletto’s<br />
Venetian works. The exhibition will be presented in partnership with the Foundation of Venice Civic<br />
Museums which is preparing to put on a Francesco Guardi retrospective at the Correr Museum in<br />
Venice to mark the 300 th anniversary of that Venetian painter’s birth.<br />
Canaletto in Venice will be an exclusive occasion for visitors to enjoy the master’s vision of his city,<br />
brought to life through his paintbrush. Along the canals we discover places, islands, squares and<br />
monuments, views of a city that still retains its 18 th -century charm. The Venetian painter certainly<br />
didn’t invent the veduta, or detailed cityscape, a genre that has ancient origins, but he helped to<br />
develop it by giving his paintings a modernity that allowed him to overtake his masters.<br />
Canaletto (1697-1768) is the most famous of the Venetian vedutisti of the 18 th century. Over the<br />
centuries Antonio Canal has never fallen from favour; his works have always been eagerly sought after<br />
by collectors. They seem to have an endless charm, unaffected by trends. Canaletto has the crystal<br />
clarity of a man who was faithful to the spirit of the Enlightenment, with a very personal vision of reality.<br />
His painting manages to capture the very essence of the light; it conveys a unique and sensual<br />
shimmering.<br />
The exhibition will bring together more than 50 carefully selected works, from the greatest museums<br />
and some historic private collections. On display too will be his drawings and also the famous<br />
sketchbook from about 1731, a rare loan by the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe Gallerie the Cabinet<br />
of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery in Venice, which will be displayed open but which<br />
can be fully explored on computers.<br />
Visitors will also be able to see a copy, made by Venetian master craftsmen, of the optical chamber<br />
used by Canaletto to make his drawings, thanks to a partnership with the superintendence of the<br />
Polo Museale of the City of Venice and the research of Dario Maran. It is taken from Canaletto’s<br />
original device, which was often used on a boat, made with carefully placed lenses that offered highly<br />
precise images that were unique at that time. Visitors will be able to see for themselves just how<br />
effective it was.<br />
3
In recent times Canaletto has had a central role in a series of ground-breaking exhibitions about the<br />
vedutisti, including the one in Rome curated by the much-missed Alessandro Bettagno with Bozena<br />
Anna Kowalczyk; The Splendours of Venice in Treviso in 2009, by Giuseppe Pavanello and Alberto<br />
Craievich; and more recently the outstanding shows in London and Washington, curated by Charles<br />
Beddington.<br />
The exhibition at the <strong>Musée</strong> <strong>Maillol</strong> aims to be the last in this decade-long cycle by allowing Canaletto<br />
alone to lead the spectator around his city through his view paintings. The works on display will show<br />
how the artist developed his style. The juxtapositioning of his paintings of the same view will show<br />
how his early style, heavily influenced by the artist Marco Ricci and also by his training as a theatrical<br />
scenery painter, gradually evolved into interpretations of reality. These were imbued with an<br />
atmosphere that was both subtle and sublime, paving the way for painting that was to conquer<br />
Europe.<br />
4
2- COMMISSION AND SCIENTIFIC COMITTEE<br />
• COMMISSION<br />
ANNALISA SCARPA<br />
An art historian who specialises in Venetian painting of the 18 th century and Venetian view painting.<br />
After teaching at the University of Ca’ Foscari in Venice, alongside authorities on Venetian art such as<br />
Pietro Zampetti, Alessandro Brettagno and especially Terisio Pignatti, she spent many years studying<br />
Canaletto’s graphic art. With Ludovico Mucchi she published Nella Profondità dei Dipinti: La<br />
Radiografia nell’indagine Pittorica (The Profundity of Painting: Radiography in Art Research), analysing<br />
more than 200 Venetian view paintings using radiography.<br />
She is the author of important works on 18 th -century Venetian art, Marco Ricci, Sebastiano Ricci and<br />
Jacopo Amigoni. She has curated a number of major recent exhibitions: Settecento Veneciano at the<br />
Academia of San Fernando in Madrid and at thr Museo ode Bellas Artes in Seville, as well as From<br />
Canaletto to Tiepolo at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. She is the curator of the Fondazione A. F. Terruzzi<br />
in Milan.<br />
• SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE<br />
IRINA ARTEMIEVA, Curator of Venetian painting, the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg<br />
CHARLES BEDDINGTON, Art historian who was curator of two of the most recent and important<br />
exhibitions dedicated to Canaletto: Canaletto in England: a Venetian Artist Abroad 1746-1755 at Yale<br />
Centre for British Art, New Haven, 2006, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2007; as well as<br />
Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals at the National Gallery in London, 2010 and the National Gallery of<br />
Art in Washington DC in 2011.<br />
Alberto CRAIEVICH, Curator, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice, and Professore<br />
Emerito of the University of Ca’ Foscari<br />
ALASTAIR LAING, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, the National Trust, London<br />
FILIPPO PEDROCCO, Director, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice<br />
LIONELLO PUPPI, President of the Centro Studi Tiziano e Cadore, Pieve di Cadore<br />
ALAIN TAPIÉ, Chief Curator of Cultural Heritage<br />
• PROJET DIRECTOR<br />
PATRIZIA NITTI, Artistic Director of the <strong>Musée</strong> <strong>Maillol</strong><br />
• SCÉNOGRAPHY<br />
HUBERT LE GALL<br />
LA FONDAZIONE TERRUZZI<br />
La Fondation possède environ mille oeuvres de peinture italienne du XVIIIe siècle, essentiellement<br />
vénitienne : Canaletto, Bellotto, Sebastiano Ricci, Magnasco, Amigoni, Pellegrini, Antonio et<br />
Gaspare Diziani, Piazzetta, Tiepolo, Guardi, Longhi, ainsi que des maîtres plus anciens tels que<br />
Paolo Veneziano, Cariani, Paris Bordone, Carpioni, Heintz, Tintoret, Luca Giordano, Strozzi. Elle<br />
possède également des œuvres du XIXe siècle, dont une importante sélection d’Ippolito Caffi.<br />
Grâce au mécénat de Guido Angelo Terruzzi, la Villa Regina Margherita de Bordighera, récemment<br />
rénovée, accueille une partie de la collection et des expositions temporaires.<br />
5
3- EXTRACTS FROM THE CATALOGUE<br />
• THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK<br />
by Annalisa Perissa Torrini, director of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery,<br />
Venice<br />
The extraordinary sketchbook of Canaletto’s drawings, unique in the history of 18 th -century Venetian<br />
art, has been in the keeping of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery in Venice<br />
since 1949. It was a donation by Don Guido Gagnola, from the village of Gazzada Schianno in the<br />
Varese region of Lombardy, who said he had received it from his father. His father had owned it since<br />
1895 but didn’t know where it had come from 1 .<br />
This precious volume, already bound at the time, was authenticated in August 1840 by Giuseppe<br />
Borsato, who unfortunately was to put his heavy stamp on every page.<br />
Not long after the sketchbook entered the Accademia collections, Vittorio Moschini 2 published two<br />
articles about it, and a facsimile edition was produced by Terisio Pignatti in 1958, then by Giovanna<br />
Nepi Scirè in 1997 3 . It has only been on public display in London in 1990, and in Venice in 1982, 1995<br />
and 1999. The critical value of this jewel of the art of drawing – important well beyond its 18 th -century<br />
context – is far greater than its artistic merit. Indeed it is hardly mentioned in the numerous<br />
monographs and catalogues dedicated to the work of Canaletto, in which the sketches it contains are<br />
treated as just part of the body of his some 500 drawings.<br />
The sketches in this book are very precise and made with great care. They are preparatory drawings<br />
representing the immediacy of a view, which will then be transformed in the painter’s mind when he<br />
makes the canvases that are supposed to reproduce reality. In this respect they show the process of<br />
Canaletto’s thinking, from the first idea to its development on paper, then on to the finished canvas.<br />
The drawings are annotated with information and observations that he will use when he turns the<br />
sketch into a painting. They reveal the way he in which he develops his works, which share a<br />
distinctive perspective based on a gradual reduction in the planes, with shortened silhouettes on the<br />
horizon. Based on topographical precision, Canaletto’s creative intelligence manages to combine all<br />
the different elements very convincingly. His notes include the names of palaces and shops,<br />
indications of a ferry or a gondola repair workshop, or he gives the exact number of windows or<br />
columns. He doesn’t forget to note down the colours – brown, white, yellow, black, off-white, red,<br />
ochre or yellow ochre – indicating whether their tones are light or dark. He also indicates sizes:<br />
“wider”, “a bit longer”, “narrower”, “correct”. Materials, too, are mentioned – lead, stone, brick, wood<br />
– and sites and even signs. When a panorama can’t be kept to one page, he divides it into sections<br />
that are developed on different pages, which he calls “strips”: “first strip on left”, or “first strip on<br />
1 Cf. G. Nepi Scirè, Accademia Galleries. History of the Drawings collections Milan, 1982, p. 17-18, 24, note 186. Letters<br />
from 28 February and 15 May 1949 are conserved in the Archive of the Superintendence, Accademia Galleries, 2, Dons et<br />
legs 118/33, Book of the sketches of Canaletto donated by Don Guido Gagnola di Gaza from Schianto (Varese).<br />
2 A book of Canaletto sketches donated to the Accademia Galleries in Venice, in “Bollettino d’Arte”, 1949, p. 279, and the<br />
book of Canaletto sketches to the Venetian Galleries, in “Arte Veneta”, 1950, p. 57-75.<br />
3 T. Pignatti, The Notebook of Canaletto Sketches at the Venice Galleries, 1958; G. Nepi Scirè, Canaletto’s Notebook,<br />
Venice, 1997; Canaletto. The Venetian Notebook, edited by A. Perissa Torrini, Venice, 2012.<br />
6
ight” 4 . And if a bell tower is too big to be kept within the dimensions of the page, and therefore within<br />
the frame of the optical chamber on which the page was placed 5 , he cuts off a bit of the lower part,<br />
as can be seen on the pages showing Santa Maria Formosa, the dome of the church of St Simeon<br />
Piccolo and the façade of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul 6 .<br />
As the book is a collection of seven sections, and not a unified whole, it’s not possible to establish<br />
through historical or artistic research the date each painting was made 7 . So we tend to examine each<br />
section separately. Thus the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore, outlined in broad strokes, still has a<br />
spire on page 2v, whereas in 1728 it is shown in a bulb shape, only found in the first section, while the<br />
smaller seventh section can be considered separately 8 .<br />
(...)<br />
Even if drawing is a direct approach to reality, that doesn’t mean that things can’t be made bigger or<br />
smaller, highlighted or underplayed by the sort of “poetic licence” described by the painter Anton<br />
Maria<br />
Zanetti. This served to enhance the true novelty of Canaletto’s painting, which ensured “that the eye is<br />
deceived and believes it is seeing the real thing and not the painted version”, as Guarienti wrote in<br />
1753. “He always goes to the site and takes everything down on the spot,” the Verona painter<br />
Alessandro Marchesini said of him in a letter in 1725-26. And Zanetti claimed that “in his paintings he<br />
joins pictorial licence to nature with such economy that his works appear to be real.” As Corboz<br />
points out, he had understood how distortions of reality could seem plausible, like the scenery in a<br />
theatre. That’s exactly what Canaletto is doing in the pages of his sketchbook, presenting scenes in<br />
the style of theatrical decoration, as he learnt in Rome from the scene-painter Andrea Pozzo. And, as<br />
recent studies of his modus operandi 9 have suggested, he did this as soon as he started using the<br />
optical chamber. In his study, Dario Maran manages to establish its exact position, based on the<br />
architectural perspectives in the sketchbook, which he analyses (p 21v-25r), as well as suggestions<br />
for other sections. Maran shows how, by turning the mirror inside the chamber, buildings can be seen<br />
4 In the 8-page series, from p. 10v to p. 14; for example, Canaletto notes “banda drita” and “banda sinistra”, “l’isteso”,<br />
“altretanto”, “taca a mezzo”, meaning link to the centre, or “taca il passatà”, meaning link to the preceding, and “parti”,<br />
meaning bring them together.<br />
5 Or fastened, as in section VII, where the perforations can still be seen (Cf. B. Biciocchi, An enigmatic work tool, in<br />
Canaletto, The Venetian Notebook, cit. 2012, p. 54-69), probably made to fix the sheet while the tracing was being carried<br />
out.<br />
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<br />
too low for the optical chamber – is suspended in the sky, an expediency the artist resorts to when the pages of the<br />
sketchbook are too small, especially for the bell towers and for La Specola.<br />
7 The entire sketchbook is not unified but, according to critics, covers some ten years, from 1734 to 1744, as put forward<br />
by Moschini and Pallucchini, while Corboz suggests 1731 to 1746, and Bettagno between the end of 1720 and the<br />
beginning of 1730. Giobanna Nepi Scirè, on the other hand, suggests that it was made between the end of the 1720s and<br />
the middle of the following decade, while Constable and Links believe that most of the sketches should be placed around<br />
1730, apart from page 2v, which they think dates from 1726 to 1727, and the rest a little later. Finally Ragghianti believes the<br />
whole sketchbook was made before 1730 and Pignatti dates it between 1728 and 1730.<br />
8 Or with the rest, as it shows no stylistic or thematic features that could support any other date than 1731.<br />
9 In Canaletto. The Venetian Notebook, cit. 2012, particularly Dario Maran, p. 40-53.<br />
7
simultaneously, and that the entire scene unfurls on a tilt like a theatrical set “for a more truthful<br />
appearance of reality”. He also shows that the instrument must have been used on a boat for all the<br />
views of the Grand Canal, St Mark’s basin and the canals. In addition, various studies have brought<br />
further insights. One fundamental point is that, by following almost to the letter the rules of 18 th -<br />
century theatrical scenography, the field of vision of these cityscapes in always contained inside a<br />
right angle, including the longest section in the sketchbook, showing St Mark’s basin.<br />
Thus, starting from reality, traced with the help of optical instruments with “scientific” precision that<br />
only he knew how to make best use of, Canaletto managed to paint views of a real city. That’s what<br />
was demanded by his foreign clients, who loved Venice, just as the viewer wants to see it and<br />
remember it today, almost as a cinematic sequence in a film made in the 18 th century.<br />
•VIEWS OF VENICE AND ENGLISH PATRONS<br />
by FRANCIS RUSSEL, Deputy Chairman, Old Master and Early British painting, Christie’s<br />
There are numerous views of Venice in renaissance devotional pictures, but it was only in the early<br />
18th Century that Venetian topography became a significant preoccupation for major artists, of whom<br />
the first was the peripatetic Gaspare Vanvitelli, few of whose Venetian views were supplied to English<br />
patrons. The earliest significant native master of the genre was Luca Carlevarijs. The 4th Earl of<br />
Manchester, who was ambassador in Venice in 1707-8—at a time when Marlborough’s victories in<br />
Flanders greatly increased the significance of such an embassy—commissioned the artist to record<br />
his official entry (fig. ). Manchester persuaded Marco Ricci and Pellegrini to return with him to England,<br />
and just as they, and Ricci’s brother Sebastiano, worked for other noblemen in his circle when in<br />
England, so Carlevarijs was to receive commissions from other British patrons, including Lord<br />
Bateman.<br />
In retrospect it is not difficult to see why the young Canaletto was established by the late 1720s as the<br />
vedutista of choice for the English. His artistic abilities were of course self-evident. He was helped by<br />
the illness and subsequent death of Carlevarijs, by McSwinny and, above all, by the leading English<br />
merchant at Venice, Joseph Smith, who acted as banker for many of those who made the Grand<br />
Tour. Both men were known to the 2nd Duke of Richmond, himself a grandson of King Charles II, but<br />
a committed Whig: he was an early patron of the artist and in 1746 was to commission two of his<br />
finest London views; and it was he who, in 1744, secured Smith’s appointment as Consul in Venice.<br />
The list of Canaletto’s major patrons in the 1730s reads like a roll call of the Whig establishment: the<br />
Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole owned a masterpiece, while the closely related dukes of Bedford<br />
and Marlborough commissioned extensive sets of canvasses, and numerous others shopped less<br />
immodestly. Smith orchestrated many of their purchases, but he could only do so because there was<br />
a genuine taste for Venetian views, even from individuals—like indeed Sir Robert Walpole—who had<br />
not made the Grand Tour.<br />
Canaletto was a meticulous and methodical artist. And of course he could not contend with demand.<br />
In recent decades, due to the work of Charles Beddington, Bozena Anna Kowalcyk and others, we<br />
have come to understand much more about the versions of his compositions, often larger than the<br />
prototypes and invariably more loosely and therefore quickly executed, which were supplied by<br />
Canaletto’s teenage nephew, Bernardo Bellotto. Some at least of these seem to have been marketed,<br />
apparently without compunction, as by Canaletto himself. But uncle and nephew had no monopoly.<br />
Pictures by their gifted contemporary, Michele Marieschi, were supplied in considerable number, most<br />
notably to the 4th Earl of Carlisle, who was assisted in Venice by the antiquary, Antonio Maria Zanetti:<br />
the incomparable View of the Bacino (now at Boston, fig. ) and a fine group of early Bellottos was<br />
complemented at Castle Howard by a set of smaller views by Marieschi.<br />
8
•CANALETTO, BEYOND IMITATION, A QUEST FOR ILLUSION<br />
By Alain Tapié, Chief Curator of Heritage<br />
The aesthetic agenda of the greatest of the vedutisti, Antonio Canal, seems to have had many<br />
elements: to expand space; to anticipate the desire for panoramas that was to preoccupy artists<br />
involved in colonial conquests throughout the first half of the 19 th century; to display monuments so<br />
as to be able to see the smallest details; to make the dream of an intimate monumentality available to<br />
everyone through these views. It was also to offer to increasing numbers of people the privilege of<br />
embracing Venice by purchasing an expensive “veduta”, carefully composed by the artist so as to<br />
create a double image, in which the expensive finite, its economic value, is combined with the<br />
heavenly infinite, its poetical perspective. It was also about establishing different subjects, without<br />
worrying about the makeshift craft of drawing them with an optical chamber, even if they looked<br />
similar when seen in the series of paintings in which they featured. It was also about treating the air<br />
that circulates between the great buildings so as to magnify them, much as the Impressionists were to<br />
do with crude industrial landscapes; ensuring that every urban fragment contributes to “the glory of<br />
the city”. In all this, Canaletto, like the Impressionists, favoured the visual projection of a perception<br />
that was orderly but without any ranking.<br />
This projection uses a different approach to reproducing scenes from the one made so familiar to us<br />
through our exposure to Impressionism, considered the model of modernity. Think of Monet and<br />
Boudin, who both painted in Venice, and who brought their subjects to life through texture, and a<br />
naturalistic, organic approach. Very differently, but equally audaciously, Canaletto gives his floating<br />
figures a bodiless physical independence as though identifying social entities who punctuate the<br />
space in infinite numbers, and who proliferate, calm and static, in the field of vision opened up by the<br />
scale and expanse. This complex layout opens up a dream world and helps to create the sort of<br />
illusions found in photography and cinema. Canaletto took the idea of composition using optics from<br />
Luca Carlevarijs, who in turn had inherited the Flemish meticulousness found in the landscapes of<br />
Pieter Brueghel and his contemporaries. Through this intricate weaving, details attain the significant<br />
role of signposting the world. Using this model, Canaletto explores a fundamental principle: painting<br />
not what is seen but what is – bricks, stones, paving stones, clefts, flaws, cracks – and at the same<br />
time painting what is not, but could be seen.<br />
(...)<br />
It is fair to say that Canaletto sometimes used the optical chamber when he needed to save time. So<br />
how can we assess the structural autonomy of paintings that, especially in the later works, attained<br />
such a lightness of touch that it seems skim the surface rather than digging in? In the urban<br />
landscapes there was a practical approach that gave pride of place to invention. When Canaletto set<br />
up a veduta, it was with the aim of researching it in depth. It seems paradoxical for a subject<br />
dominated by different planes: lagoon, facades, ground and sky. People, boats and gondolas are set<br />
out so as to contribute to the same feeling of distance. The optical effect thus created distributes the<br />
figures in a way that is both reasoned and random. The different planes, like the signs, buildings and<br />
human figures, are close and distant at the same time. A systematic adjustment of the bright light<br />
gives each of these figures the micro-proportions that enable us to determine social bearing without<br />
having to come up against anyone’s personality. Canaletto relied on graphic dynamics for his human<br />
figures, adjusting their appearances, bordering on the superficial and the outline. The ratio is reversed<br />
for the skies, the lagoon and the quaysides, which come to life through graphic resonance and bring<br />
out a monumental density. The rest is achieved by the broken tones and daylight colours of the<br />
Mannerist tradition, giving a feeling of unity, and bringing continuity to the different planes. The light<br />
and shade simply accompanies the reliefs, which gives the views a clarity without contrast, making all<br />
parts of each composition equally accessible to the eye.<br />
9
The sculptural sensibility of Canaletto’s images is not changed by the their optical structuring. Each<br />
view has an element of pure painting that doesn’t diminish the use of the camera obscura. It allows<br />
him to transfer distant or narrow spaces to paper, combining many points of view. The poetic tones<br />
are not arranged symmetrically. The speed at which the painter works corresponds to his aim to<br />
reproduce rather than represent. Thus the painter corrects the overall perspective, made up of partial<br />
views, so as to achieve a consistent view, by rebalancing the vanishing points that rise or fall<br />
excessively. He works on the stereotype of a first plane that is generally dark, to act as a foil, a second<br />
plane that presents squares, gardens and waterways, a third plane containing edifices and facades,<br />
and a higher fourth plane where we at last reach the sky. The achievement of the vedutiste consists in<br />
measuring the difficulty of the relationship between the details and the overall structure. There are<br />
three types of details and they are a source of invention, things that the artist puts in because he<br />
knows them, things that we shouldn’t see. They cause a tension within the image towards hyperreality,<br />
metaphorical details: a fountain, a ruin, a column, a bit of vegetation; they act like a florid and<br />
capricious commentary on the objective base on which the space is built. There are the details of<br />
human life: those “figurines” that stand their ground in distant poses, the theatre of the everyday.<br />
Canaletto, that great painter of the veduta, shows his complete loyalty to the optical perception of<br />
reality by giving an intense and suspensive character to his compositions. The image acquires all the<br />
necessary simplicity.<br />
In a romanticized view of art history, Alain Buisine describes the daily work of Canaletto: “It’s quite<br />
right to call it hand-made; it’s heavy, it soon causes ankylosis in the arm. You have to know how to<br />
use it, to be able to choose the right lens, to adjust the lenses so that the image is almost up straight,<br />
otherwise it will be blurred and inverted, and to correct the aberrations and distortions of perspective<br />
that it can cause. Finally, it’s essential to make this devilish optical machine stable and fully horizontal<br />
so that the rough tiling of the Venetian campi is never flat. It’s not at all as easy as people think, who<br />
naively assume that you just have to make a copy, that the drawing is finished in a trice and perfect.<br />
That would be too good to be true, and anyway it would mean that there would be no more need for<br />
professional draughtsmen. It’s very practical for expanding the space and doing a first sketch.<br />
Anyway all his vedutisti colleagues use it for this, too. It allows him to draw a simple, rapid scaraboto<br />
sketch, a large overall view that will give him his very first panoramic outline. … The important part<br />
comes later, when he divides this rough sketch into different sections, which he reworks in minute<br />
detail by hand and on the spot.”<br />
That is the working method that allows Canaletto to meet his documentary obligations, to grasp exact<br />
architectural details and ceremonial rituals, since he is free of the succession of scenes and situations<br />
in the time sequence of events. Very different from the imitative process that tries to capture mobility,<br />
Canaletto creates poses in every scene, as though time is standing still.<br />
By using an optical chamber Canaletto brings out the detail, captured for its own sake, yet used again<br />
in an overall unity, by a phenomenon of immersion due to the transformation through colour. All the<br />
chance signs and picturesque details thus become superfluous. It is the modernity of Canaletto that<br />
highlights the break with mere copying thanks to the way he captures illusion by optical means. The<br />
imagination that is liberated both by the structure and the layout of the details does not deprive the<br />
viewer of his desire for reality. In his Guide for Lovers of the Louvre Museum, Théophile Gautier offers<br />
this invitation: “If you haven’t been to Venice, stop in front of Canaletto’s painting showing the<br />
Madonna della Salute at the entrance to the Grand Canal and you will have made the journey. You<br />
will learn no more from the reality, the entire illusion is complete.” Gautier’s opinion goes to the heart of<br />
the matter, removing the need to resort to reference, for the pictorial process follows a different route.<br />
The Impressionist painters did much the same thing.<br />
10
•FACES AND MASKS.<br />
FROM THE "IMAGO URBIS"OF THE MYTH OF VENICE TO ITS DECONSTRUCTION IN<br />
THE "VEDUTA"<br />
By Lionello Puppi, President of the Titian and Cadore Study Centre, Pieve di Cadore, Emeritus<br />
Professor at the University of Ca’ Foscari<br />
For the British traveller William Way (and all the pilgrims going to the Holy Land), the last stage before<br />
facing the sea, with its disagreeable troubles and terrifying dangers, was Veneciam, civitatem nobilem<br />
et grandem, which appeared in the splendour of a bright and living foretaste of Jersusalem.<br />
An earthly sign of the heavenly Jerusalem (Puppi, 1982 and 1994, passim) its image of the Doge’s<br />
Palace and its palatine chapel, apparently reminiscent of Jerusalem, was constantly passed on. It had<br />
already been seen in Reuwich, Schedel and Carpaccio, not forgetting its presence in the background<br />
of The Judgement of Solomon (Florence, Uffizi Galleries), in the Virgin Reading (Oxford, Ashmolean<br />
Museum), and the Death of Adonis by Sebastian del Piombo (Florence, Uffizi Galleries). It is also to be<br />
found in Titian, in Saint Christopher (Venice, Doge’s Palace), and The Virgin with Saints (Ancona,<br />
Museo Civico), in Andrea Schiavone’s Annunciation (Belluno, church of St Pietro), the Flight into Egypt<br />
by Girolamo Savoldo, the Eternal Father Giving his Blessing, by Bonifacio dei’ Pitati (Venice,<br />
Accademia Galleries) and in the Foundation of the Hospice of the Crociferi, by Jacopo Palma the<br />
Younger (Venice, Oratory of the Crociferi).<br />
The composite visual image of Venice is even more eloquent when it is accompanied by processions<br />
(in the great canvas by Gentile Bellini, today in the Accademia Galleries in Venice, or in prints, such as<br />
the one showing the Nuptials of the Doge and the Sea, by Johannes Amman Jost, in the fine copy at<br />
the Metropolitan Museum of New York, or the Cortège in St Mark’s Square, published in 1610 by<br />
Giacomo Franco). With this in mind, we should note how this aspect was taken up and transfigured in<br />
the imaginary views of the city produced between the end of the 16th century and the last years of<br />
the 17th century, of which Stefania Mason has produced an interesting anthology, recently analysed<br />
and discussed by Pedrocco (2001, p. 30-37).<br />
A symbolic reading seems more appropriate still when you look at the interaction between Mercury<br />
and Neptune, demonstrated by Ridolfi (1648, quoted by Sinding Larsen, 1980, p. 44), in the<br />
iconographic design of the Triumph of Venice that decorates the central medallion of the ceiling in the<br />
hall of the Pregadi in the Doge’s Palace. Especially because it takes centre stage, dominating all the<br />
other components of this symbolic machine in the nucleus of the building that was designed for the<br />
exercise of “the wisdom of the state”. As such, the secular fortune of such a position has been<br />
overlooked, whether by chance or through laziness. As has the influence of the very famous<br />
representation of the Utopian island, or the map of “the city of Temestian Mexico” that appears in the<br />
third volume of Giambattista Ramusio’s Navigazioni, or again in the vedute of Benedetto Bordon and<br />
Salvioni (cf. Schulz, 1970, and Cassini, 1971).<br />
The fashion for vedute was born, evolved and developed obviously influenced by the success it found<br />
with these well-born travellers who swarmed to Venice. They were supplied with “postcards” to keep<br />
alive the emotional experience of having been there through a selection of sites that could capture the<br />
imagination, to make them believe they were among the myriad walk-on figures that were identical in<br />
the draft and varied in the finished product. To echo the observations of Starobinski, it was a<br />
production “that is not dissipative” but “variations on a theme”. As André Corboz (1994, p. 26-27)<br />
wrote so acutely: “Despite the extreme varieties of tone, all these Venetian views progressively create<br />
a copy which becomes a substitute for the city itself (both symbolic and a reality in stone), to the point<br />
that the real one is evaluated and judged on the basis of these views.”<br />
11
It is precisely the flexibility of this art, long considered not really “noble”, and thus less subject to the<br />
rules of historical, religious or portrait painting, which, in the particular environment of 18th-century<br />
Venice, offers to a Canaletto or a Francis Guardi (Corboz, 1994, p. 31-34) the chance to work<br />
brilliantly and freely, enabling them to scale the heights of lyrical and melancholic quality in their<br />
paintings.<br />
12
4- LIST OF WORKS<br />
ANTONIO CANAL DIT CANALETTO<br />
• PAINTINGS<br />
Il Canal Grande da Palazzo Balbi<br />
Le Grand Canal, vu du palais Balbi<br />
1726-1728 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
45 x 73 cm<br />
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi<br />
La Scala dei Giganti in Palazzo Ducale<br />
L'escalier des Géants du Palazzo Ducale<br />
1755-1756<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
174 x 136 cm<br />
Grande Bretagne/ Alnwick, Collection of the Duke of<br />
Northumberland<br />
Il molo dal bacino di San Marco<br />
Le môle vu du bassin de San Marco<br />
1740-1745<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
54 x 71 cm<br />
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera<br />
Le isole di San Cristoforo, San Michele e Murano<br />
dalle Fondamenta Nuove<br />
Les îles San Cristoforo, San Michele et Murano vues<br />
des Fondamenta Nuove<br />
1724-1725 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
67x 127 cm<br />
Saint-Pétersbourg, <strong>Musée</strong> d’Etat de l’Ermitage<br />
La chiesa di San Giovanni dei Battuti a Murano, con<br />
Venezia nel fondo<br />
L'église de San Giovanni dei Battuti à Murano, et<br />
Venise dans le lointain<br />
1724-1725 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
66 X 127,5 cm<br />
Saint-Pétersbourg, <strong>Musée</strong> d’Etat de l’Ermitage<br />
Basilica della Salute e la Dogana, dai pressi di<br />
Palazzo Cornaro<br />
La Basilique de la Salute et la Douane vues du Palais<br />
Cornaro<br />
1725-1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
46,5 x 91 cm<br />
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen<br />
Piazza San Marco, verso la Basilica<br />
La place San Marco, vers la Basilique<br />
1735-1738<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
80x127 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Chiesa della<br />
Salute<br />
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la<br />
Salute<br />
1740<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
72 x 112,5 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Piazza San Marco, con la Basilica e la chiesa di San<br />
Geminiano<br />
La Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique et l'église San<br />
Geminiano<br />
1730 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
61 x 95,9 cm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Museum of Fine<br />
Art, Houston<br />
Cannaregio<br />
Le Pont des trois arches sur le canal Cannaregio<br />
1730 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
48,6 x 78,7 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Il Canal Grande, fra la chiesa di Santa Croce e quella<br />
di San Geremia<br />
Le Grand Canal, entre l'église de Santa Croce et<br />
l'église San Geremia<br />
1730 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
48,3 x 77,5 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Il Canal Grande, con il Ponte di Rialto, da Sud<br />
Le Grand Canal et le pont du Rialto, vu du<br />
Sud<br />
1733-1735<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
68,5 x 92 cm<br />
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo<br />
Barberini<br />
Il Canal Grande, dal Ponte di Rialto, verso Ca'Foscari<br />
Le Grand Canal, vu du pont du Rialto, vers la<br />
Ca'Foscari<br />
1733-1735<br />
13
Huile sur toile<br />
69 x 94 cm<br />
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo<br />
Barberini<br />
Rio dei Mendicanti<br />
Le Rio des Mendiants<br />
1723<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
144 x 207 cm<br />
Venezia, Ca’ Rezzonico, museo del Settecento<br />
Veneziano<br />
L'ingresso al Canal Grande, dalla<br />
Piazzetta<br />
L'entrée du Grand Canal vue de la<br />
Piazzetta<br />
1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
58,5 x 102 cm<br />
Grand Bretagne, Knutsford<br />
The Egerton of Tatton Park<br />
La Riva degli Schiavoni, col Palazzo Ducale, verso<br />
est<br />
La Riva degli Schiavoni et le Palais ducal<br />
1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
110,5 x 185,5 cm<br />
Grande Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton<br />
Park<br />
La Punta della dogana<br />
La pointe de la Douane<br />
1740-1745<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
27,6 x 37,3 cm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni<br />
LTD, Londres<br />
La Piazzetta, verso il molo<br />
La Piazzetta, vers le môle<br />
1740-1745<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
27,9 x 37,3 cm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni<br />
LTD, Londres<br />
Le Chiuse di Dolo<br />
L'écluse de Dolo<br />
1763<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
31 x 45 cm<br />
Courtesy of Robilant + Voena, London - Milano<br />
La Torre di Malghera<br />
La Tour de Malghera<br />
1756 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
31,5 x 46,5 cm<br />
Courtesy of Robilant + Voena, London - Milano<br />
Il Canal Grande, da Palazzo Balbi<br />
Le Grand Canal vu du Palais Balbi<br />
1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
61 x 99 cm<br />
Bergame, museo dell’ Accademia Carrara<br />
La Chiesa del Redentore<br />
L'église du Redentore<br />
1747-1755<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
60 x 94.5 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
La Chiesa di San Geremia e l'ingresso a<br />
Cannaregio<br />
L'église San Geremia et l'entrée de<br />
Cannaregio<br />
1735-1742<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
46 x 63 cm<br />
Vienne, collection du Prince de Liechtenstein<br />
Ingresso al Canal Grande, con la Basilica della<br />
Salute<br />
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la<br />
Salute<br />
1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
53 x 70,5 cm<br />
Milan, FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Villa Necchi<br />
Campiglio, collection Alighiero ed Emilietta de’ Micheli<br />
Capriccio col Ponte di Rialto secondo il progetto del<br />
Palladio, la Basilica di San Marco e uno scorcio di<br />
Palazzo Chiericati a Vicenza<br />
Caprice, avec le pont du Rialto d'après le projet de<br />
Palladio, la basilique San Marco, et le palais<br />
Chiericati à Vicence<br />
1745 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
60 x 82 cm<br />
Parme, Galleria Nazionale<br />
Isole della laguna nord viste da San Pietro in Castello<br />
Iles de la lagune nord vues de San Pietro in<br />
Castello<br />
1724-1725<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
63 x 108 cm<br />
Moscou, <strong>Musée</strong> d’Etat des Beaux-Arts Pouchkine<br />
Isole della laguna nord da San Pietro in Castello e<br />
dall’Arsenale<br />
Iles de la lagune nord vues de San Pietro in Castello<br />
et de l'Arsenal<br />
1724-1725<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
63 x 108 cm<br />
14
Moscou, <strong>Musée</strong> d’Etat des Beaux-Arts Pouchkine<br />
La Piazzetta, verso la Torre dell'Orologio<br />
La Piazzetta et la tour de l'Horloge<br />
1728-1729<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
135,5 x 137,5 cm<br />
<strong>Musée</strong> des Beaux-Arts de Brest Métropole Océane<br />
Festa notturna alla chiesa di San Pietro in<br />
Castello<br />
Fête de nuit à l'église San Pietro in<br />
Castello<br />
1745 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
97 x 131 cm<br />
Londres, collection Gert-Rudolf Flick<br />
Il Canal Grande verso il rio di Cannaregio<br />
Le Canal Grande vers le rio di Cannaregio<br />
1745-1750<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
46 x 78,5 cm<br />
Venise, Collection della Cassa di Risparmio di<br />
Venezia<br />
L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Basilica della<br />
Salute<br />
L'entrée au Grand Canal et la Basilique de la<br />
Salute<br />
1745-1750<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
46 x 78,5 cm<br />
Venise, Collection della Cassa di Risparmio di<br />
Venezia<br />
Piazza San Marco, con il prospetto della Basilica e<br />
del Palazzo Ducale, la Loggetta e il Campanile di<br />
scorcio<br />
La Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique<br />
environ 1747<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
56 x 69 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Il Ponte di Rialto, da sud<br />
Le Pont du Rialto, vu du Sud<br />
1730-1735<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
53 x 70,5 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Le Canal Grande vu du Campo San Vio<br />
Le Grand Canal, vu du Campo San Vio, vers la<br />
Basilique de la Salute<br />
1723 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
84,7 x 120 cm<br />
Villa Vauban - <strong>Musée</strong> d'Art de la Ville de Luxembourg<br />
Veduta del Bacino da Riva degli Schiavoni verso la<br />
Basilica della Salute<br />
Vue du bassin de la Riva degli Schiavoni vers la<br />
Basilique de la Salute<br />
1726-28<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
47 x 59 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
La Basilica di San Marco verso San Geminiano<br />
Basilique San Marco et le campo San Basso<br />
1722 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
41 x 59 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Veduta della laguna con ponte<br />
Vue d'une île de la lagune avec un pont<br />
1730-1740<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
23,8 x 39 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Palco con attori della commedia dell'arte Piazza San<br />
Marco con sfondo San Gimignano<br />
La Commedia dell'arte en Place San Marco<br />
1720-23<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
25 x 32,5 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Veduta della Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute<br />
Vue de la Basilique di Santa Maria della Salute<br />
1756-1767<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
48,4 x 35 cm<br />
Courtesy of Collection Fenici<br />
La Piazzetta verso la Basilica della Salute<br />
La Piazzetta vers la Basilique de la Salute<br />
1723 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
129 x 127 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Piazza San Marco verso la Basilica e Palazzo Ducale<br />
con la Loggetta sulla destra<br />
Vue de la Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique et le<br />
Palazzo Ducale avec la Loggetta sur la<br />
droite<br />
1760 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
57 x 70 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
15
• DRAWINGS<br />
Quaderno dei disegni Cagnola<br />
Carnet de croquis de Canaletto<br />
encre sur papier<br />
1745-1750<br />
175 x 235 mm<br />
Venezia, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe delle Gallerie<br />
dell'Accademia<br />
Case a Santa Marta<br />
Habitations à Santa Marta (recto et verso)<br />
1758 environ<br />
plume et encre foncée sur traces de<br />
crayon<br />
180 x 283 mm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano<br />
Lapicirella<br />
Santa Marta, al limite della Laguna<br />
Santa Marta, à l’extrémité de la lagune (recto et<br />
verso)<br />
1758 environ<br />
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée sur traces de<br />
crayon<br />
175 x 282 mm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano<br />
Lapiccirella<br />
Il Canal Grande vicino a Palazzo Foscari<br />
Le Canal Grande près de Palazzo Foscari (recto et<br />
verso)<br />
1758 environ<br />
papier blanc, plume et encre brune sur traces de<br />
crayon<br />
262 x 193 mm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano<br />
Lapiccirella<br />
Piazza San Marco verso Sud-Est<br />
Place San Marco vers Sud-Est<br />
1740-43<br />
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée<br />
142 x 285 mm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano<br />
Lapiccirella<br />
Scuola Grande di San Marco<br />
1739 environ<br />
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée<br />
185 x 205 mm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano<br />
Lapiccirella<br />
Scuola Grande di San Marco<br />
1739 environ<br />
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée, pierre noire sur<br />
le verso<br />
171 x 205 mm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano<br />
Lapiccirella<br />
Capriccio<br />
1765 environ<br />
papier blanc, plume et encre foncée sur traces de<br />
crayon<br />
185 x 275 mm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano<br />
Lapiccirella<br />
Porte del Dolo<br />
Les Portes de Dolo<br />
1763<br />
papier blanc, plume, craie rouge, encre et<br />
lavis<br />
Collection particulière<br />
• GRAVURES ET CHAMBRE OPTIQUE<br />
La Tour de Malghera<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
294 x 424 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
Mestre<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
294 x 424 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
Le Porte del Dolo<br />
Les portes du Dolo<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
296 x 426 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
La Libreria<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
142 x 205 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
La Piera del Bando<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
141 x 208 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
Mercato sul Molo<br />
Marché sur le môle<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
142 x 207 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
16
Le Prigioni<br />
Les prisons<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
141 x 208 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
Monumento equestre<br />
Monument équestre<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
139 x 205 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
Le Procuratie Nuove a S. Ziminian<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
143 x 209 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
La Terrazza<br />
La terrasse<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
132 x 207 mm<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
Paesaggio con pellegrino in preghiera<br />
Paysage avec pèlerin en prière<br />
après 1733<br />
Eau-forte<br />
Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni<br />
EN CONTREPOINT<br />
Bernardo Canal<br />
Il Canal Grande con il Ponte di Rialto<br />
Le Canal Grande avec le Ponte du Rialto<br />
1735-1740<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
186 x 306 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Francesco Guardi<br />
Regata in Canal Grande all'altezza dell'Ambasciata di<br />
Francia in Palazzo Mocenigo della Trezza<br />
Regate sur le Canal Grande à la hauteur de<br />
l'Ambassade de France, Palazzo Mocenigo della Trezza<br />
1791<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
45 x 57 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Francesco Guardi<br />
Bird's Eye view of Venice<br />
Vue de Venise à vol d'oiseau<br />
1740<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
110 x 190 cm<br />
Londres, MOD Art Collection Ministry of Defence<br />
Peintre vénitien du XVIIIe siècle<br />
Ritratto di Canaletto<br />
Portrait de Canaletto<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
80,2 x 66,8 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
Camera ottica<br />
Chambre optique de Canaletto<br />
XVIIIème siècle<br />
Bois, verre et miroir<br />
380 x 242 x 225 mm<br />
Venise, Museo Correr<br />
Manufacture vénitienne<br />
Maquette du projet pour le Palazzo Corner della<br />
Regina<br />
XVIIIe siècle<br />
Bois taillé<br />
Venise, museo Correr<br />
Manufacture vénitienne<br />
Stemma Michiel<br />
début XVIIe siècle<br />
Bois taillé, peint avec dorure<br />
Venise, museo Correr<br />
17
Canaletto’s optical chamber<br />
Venice, 18 th century<br />
Wood, glass and mirrors<br />
38 x 24.2 x 22.5cm<br />
Venice, Correr Museum<br />
“Among the different models of optical chamber, the camera obscura was the most often used,<br />
especially by Canaletto, who gave his name to the one called “A. Canal”, preserved at the Correr<br />
Museum in Venice.<br />
“In this model an interior mirror tilted at 45 degrees captured the rays of light through a fixed focallength<br />
lens, which send them to the upper side of the box above which is a screen of opalescent<br />
frosted glass, a horizontal plane on which the operator places sheets on which he can trace the<br />
buildings that appear.<br />
“The instrument has both advantages and limits: as a result the mirror intercepts the visual pyramid of<br />
the external image and reflects it onto the frame. Compared with a simple inverted image, this one is<br />
markedly clearer and the process is facilitated by the fact that the plane on which the image is<br />
returned is horizontal. However, even when the orientation of the image from top to bottom is correct<br />
(when it’s not reversed) the left-right inversion remains. So the image only has the correct direction if it<br />
is observed through the sheet, which necessitates a second phase of tracings. “Another limitation is<br />
caused by the frosted glass. In fact with this type of camera obscura the operator has to use the most<br />
transparent paper possible on which to trace his drawing. And the quality of the image also depends<br />
on the instrument’s fixed focal length.”<br />
Dario Maran<br />
The <strong>Musée</strong> <strong>Maillol</strong> has funded the reconstruction of Canaletto’s optical chamber according to original<br />
plans, under the supervision of Dario Maran, author of the essay: “Canaletto and the use of the optical<br />
chamber” (in the exhibition catalogue). This optical chamber will be open to the public for the duration<br />
of the exhibition.<br />
18
5- VISUALS DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR THE MEDIA<br />
1-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
Il Canal Grande da Palazzo Balbi<br />
Le Grand Canal, vu du palais Balbi<br />
1726-1728 environ<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
45 x 73 cm<br />
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi<br />
© Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le<br />
Attività Culturali<br />
2-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
L'ingresso al Canal Grande, dalla Piazzetta<br />
L'entrée du Grand Canal vue de la Piazzetta<br />
1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
58,5 x 102 cm<br />
Grande-Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton<br />
Park<br />
© NTPL/John Bethell<br />
3-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
La Riva degli Schiavoni, col Palazzo Ducale, verso<br />
est<br />
La Riva degli Schiavoni et le Palais Ducal<br />
1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
110,5 x 185,5 cm<br />
Grande-Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton<br />
Park<br />
© NTPL/John Bethell<br />
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4-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
Ingresso al Canal Grande, con la Basilica della<br />
Salute<br />
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la<br />
Salute<br />
1730<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
53 x 70,5 cm<br />
Milan, FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Villa Necchi<br />
Campiglio, collection Alighiero ed Emilietta de’<br />
Micheli<br />
© Mario Govino, Fotografo<br />
5-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Chiesa della<br />
Salute<br />
L'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la<br />
Salute<br />
1740<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
72 x 112,5 cm<br />
Collection particulière<br />
© Collection particulière / DR<br />
6-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
Il molo dal bacino di San Marco<br />
Le môle vu du bassin de San Marco<br />
1740-1745<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
54 x 71 cm<br />
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera<br />
© Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le<br />
Attività Culturali<br />
7-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
La Punta della dogana<br />
La pointe de la Douane<br />
1740-1745<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
27,6 x 37,3 cm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni<br />
LTD, Londres<br />
© Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD<br />
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8-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
La Piazzetta, verso il molo<br />
La Piazzeta, vers le môle<br />
1740-1745<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
27,9 x 37,3 cm<br />
Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni<br />
LTD, Londres<br />
© Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD<br />
9-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
La Chiesa del Redentore<br />
L'église du Redentore<br />
1747-1755<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
60 x 94,5 cm<br />
Collection particulière.<br />
© Galerie de Jonckheere<br />
10-<br />
Antonio Canal dit Canaletto<br />
La Scala dei Giganti in Palazzo Ducale<br />
L'escalier des Géants du Palazzo Ducale<br />
1755-1756<br />
Huile sur toile<br />
174 x 136 cm<br />
Grande Bretagne/ Alnwick, Collection of the Duke of<br />
Northumberland<br />
© Collection of the Duke of Northumberland<br />
21
5- PRACTICAL INFORMATION<br />
MUSÉE MAILLOL - DINA VIERNY FOUNDATION<br />
59-61, rue de Grenelle<br />
75007 Paris<br />
Tél : 01 42 22 59 58<br />
Fax : 01 42 84 14 44<br />
Métro : Rue du Bac<br />
Bus : n° 63, 68, 69, 83, 84<br />
www.museemaillol.com<br />
OPENING TIMES<br />
Everyday from 10.30 am to 7 pm, including public holidays.<br />
Late night on Fridays, until 9.30 pm<br />
TICKET PRICES<br />
Full rate : 11 euros<br />
Concessions : 9 euros<br />
Free for under-11s<br />
BOOK ON LINE<br />
www.museemaillol.com<br />
www.fnac.com<br />
Descriptions of 25 major works are available on the audioguide and the museum's smartphone app<br />
RESTAURANT<br />
Italian restaurant " La Cortigiana "<br />
Open everyday from 10.30 am to 5 pm. Private bookings are available for mornings and evenings.<br />
CHILDREN'S WORKSHOPS<br />
« The mysteries of Venice »<br />
Lasts 90 minutes (visit + workshop + snack)<br />
Open to children aged 7 to 11<br />
Price : €18<br />
From 26 September 2012 to 9 February 2013<br />
Every Wednesday from 3pm to 4.30pm<br />
Every Saturday, 11am to 12.30pm<br />
During school holidays contact us for dates<br />
Reservations : enfants@museemaillol.com<br />
PRESS CONTACTS<br />
AGENCE OBSERVATOIRE<br />
68 rue Pernety - 75014 Paris<br />
Céline Echinard<br />
01 43 54 87 71<br />
celine@observatoire.fr<br />
www.observatoire.fr<br />
MUSÉE MAILLOL<br />
Claude Unger<br />
06 14 71 27 02<br />
cunger@museemaillol.com<br />
Elisabeth Apprédérisse<br />
01 42 22 57 25<br />
eapprederisse@museemaillol.com<br />
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