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Well, we have all seen them on any trip to a fine arts museum. You know, THEM, those romantic scenes of the Venice of by gone times, full of gondolas maneuvering their way along the canals. Yes, by-gone times, the 1700s to be precise, where the largest boats were fishing vessels not gigantic cruise liners carrying 5,000 passengers. Ah, those were the days. They certainly were for Giovanni Antonio Canal, known to us as Canaletto (1697-1768). Somewhere around 1726 as the British Grand Tour became all the rage, Venice was one of the favorite places to stop. Its beauty was something these tourists wanted to remember, hence a sudden market for beautifully painted scenes of the city, known as vedute. Canaletto made a fortuitous connection with the British ambassador, Joseph Smith, who not only bought the young painter’s work but talked it up to all those wealthy British travelers. Canaletto was amenable to moving his painting style more toward the tastes of those refined Brits and their ideas of British Rationalism. His superb skills in composition were put to good use, as was his camera obscura (see information below), as he moved his painting toward the pristine, clearly defined, and romanticized scenes his patrons loved to proudly display as they bragged about their grand voyage.
Canaletto had a great sense of drama, as he grew up originally following in his father’s footsteps as a painter of stage scenery. While he used that fine sense of composition in his vedute that so pleased his English clients, one can see by his early painting that the sense of drama was quite present in his work. The painting below has much more of it than his later vedute, which tend toward a perfected clarity and luminousity that can seem a bit static. In the painting below we see movement in the clouds and the darkened skies which tell the viewer that not every day in Venice is a sunny one. Canaletto, however, did find an outlet for his dramatic flair, which will be looked at later.
The idea of painting lovely scenes of Venice had gotten started before the British tourist boom. One of the first vedutisti, as the painters of these scenes were called, was Gaspar van Wittel. He was a native of a town in the far north of Europe near Ultrecht where the climate was quite a bit different than that of Venice. He arrived in Venice around 1695 and started painting iconic scenes of the city around 1697. Luca Carlevarijs published in 1703 a book of prints of 103 scenic views of Venice, which became a sort of guide for other painters of scenes. He also did oil paintings of these views and was active when Canaletto began his career as a vedutista.
And there were other rivals to Canaletto, like Michele Marieschi and Bernardo Bellotto, but his primary rival was a man who came from a family of not well-known painters, Francesco Guardi. Guardi and his brother Gian Antonio picked up what work they could. Not much of what they produced together was remarkable, and in fact Guardi had a hard life financially right up to his death in 1793. However, after his brother’s death in 1760, Guardi began to enter the field of painting vedute. When Canaletto died in 1768, there was more room for Guardi who began turning out his own brand of Venetian views. In his painting below, the skies are less formulaic and more natural to the changing moods of Venetian weather than the standard Canaletto. While there is traffic on the canal, it is not the flurry of every kind of vessel we see in Canaletto’s view. Rather we see gondolas peacefully ferrying people about on the placid surface of the canal. The buildings are not as starkly detailed, and the whole piece has a softer feeling to it.
Guardi was not opposed to showing the gloomier side of Venice’s waters and mists. In The Gondola on the Lagoon (1765-70), we see a Venice that is far in the distance, shrouded in the beige/gray mists of a sky that is only distinquished from the sea by the strip of whitish buildings that is the city. The gondola in the foreground seems to be heading off to somewhere other than Venice, as if moving into the unknown. This painting has a great mystery about it, and some speculate that Guardi was still mourning the death of the older brother who had raised him from the age of five after their father died. Gian Antonio, the brother, had also taught Francesco to paint; however, it was after Gian Antonio’s death when Francesco’s painting began to really develop. The painting below is certainly not the usual veduta, but it shows a deep sensitivity and an awareness of space relationships and color in creating a mood.
The Capriccios (Caprices)
While the majority of the tourist market for vedute was for the classic scenes of Venice and its Grand Canal, the artists as always found ways to let their creative energies exhibit themselves. In 18th century Venice that came about with the Capriccios, or fantasy paintings of a ruined city still fully populated with people and what were supposed to be once famous landmarks. Here the artists let their minds roam free to create these imagined scenes full of arches and columns that stood alone after whatever building they’d been a part of had collapsed. Weeds grow out of the cracks and across the tops of these structures. The humans who inhabit the buildings of these fantasy-scapes seem always to be preoccupied with whatever their daily needs and duties are while living calmly among the ruins. Below a Canaletto, Caprice with Ruins, 1742, Guardi’s Caprice (1732), and Bernardo Bellotto’s Caprice with a House on the Lagoon, c. 1745.
The Magic Camera (Obscura)
One question that always comes up is this: How did they get so much precision when doing those complicated pieces of architecture? Well, as they say, it is all done with mirrors. The camera obscura used a lens and a slanted mirror pointed at the scene that one wished to replicate. The lens and mirror were mounted inside a box. The box sat above a structure with heavy dark cloth around it to block out light. The whole thing sat on a table where the artist could sit and draw the outlines of the projected image on the canvas. The pictures below come from a lovely little book, Venise au temps de Canaletto, which was published in 2012 to go with the Canaletto Guardi les deux maitres de Venise (Two Masters of Venice) exposition in Paris.
To find out more about how the camera obscura works, look at this video, The Art of Photography – the Camera Obscura, youtube.com.
Finally, we shall leave Venice with its current wonder – clear water in the canals! Yes, with the fight against COVID-19, the lack of traffic on the waterways of the city has allowed the dolphins to return. Viva Venezia!
A little lesson in Italian: Veduta is one painting of Venice; vedute is more than one. Vedutista is a painter of Venetian scenes; vedustisti are painters of Venetian scenes.
Paintings are in public domain but links are given to their museum locations. The three caprices are photos taken by me from the catalog Canaletto Guardi, les deux maitres de Venise, 2012 and used in accordance with Fair Use policy.
Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.
Pinon Grigio Venezia
In Venice one way to escape the hustle and bustle in a city always busy with commerce, whether shipping or tourism, is to stop at a favorite cafe for a small snack and a refreshing glass of one of Venice’s favorite wines, a Pinot Grigio Venezia DOC. (DOC means the wine is certified to originate in the Veneto.) Add a bit of conversation with the barman, the restaurant owner, or a friend who happens to be passing by, and you have a nice respite from the stresses of daily life.
Pinot Grigio first arrived in the Veneto in the early 19th century and hailed from France and Germany. The grape is a genetic variation on the Pinot Noir grape which produces one of the most drinkable wines, lauded in both text and film (Sideways, 2004). In France it is known as Pinot Gris, but apart from the differences in soil, Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are rather the French and Italian versions of the same thing.
Pinot Grigio Venezia tends to be a golden yellow, though it can come in forms that are very, very pale. It can have hints of pineapple and pear William and a slight floral aroma. Like springtime, it is a young wine, fresh and meant to be drunk and not aged (though under certain conditions it can be aged some). Pinot Grigio does differentiate itself from the French Pinot Gris by being drier in taste, with a touch of the mineral. The French version tends to be fruitier. Another version of wine from the same grape comes from Alsace and is quite sweet. For a “deep dive,” as Madeline Puckette of Wine Folly says, go to “The 3 Types of Pinot Grigio” winefolly.com. If you want a short video of an actual tasting of a good Pinot Grigio, click on this video from Santavinea youtube.com.
Food, Glorious Food…
As we know, Venice sits on the water, its buildings resting on a forest of enormous wooden pilings driven into the ground below the surface of the sea. The sea surrounds it and runs through it, so what kind of foods might one eat with a Pinot Grigio Venezia? Seafood! Right! But that is not all. It goes marvelously with a basic, like a good slice of bread and some raw ham. In fact various meat dishes, from roast pork to fried chicken, can be had with a nice glass of Pinot Grigio. To get the low down on some of the wonderful possibilities see “12 Recipes that Go Gaga for Pinot Grigio” by Carl Hansen on allrecipes.com
Finally should you want a 3.5 minute virtual vacation, I send you to Oliver Astrologo’s video on Venice. youtube.com
Should you want to taste wines from around the world, try Cellars Wine Club’s International Wine Club. You can click this link cellarswineclub.com or investigate by looking at the Cellars Wine Club page in the righthand column on this page.
Photos of food and wine are from free photo sites or live-linked to web sources.
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©marjorie vernelle 2020
Coming Soon on Of Art and Wine: Carel Fabritius’ Goldfinch and Netherlands Wines.
This little painting of a lonely, little bird chained to its perch is a small masterpiece by Carel Fabritius done in 1654. Some of its current fame comes from Donna Tartt’s novel by the same name, a wonderful read by the way. However, one real mystery surrounding the painting is about whether Fabritius taught Vermeer, making him the link in art history between Rembrandt and Vermeer. Here, on Of Art and Wine, of course, we add an additional element of surprise – Netherlands Wine!