Exhibition of the week Canaletto and the Art of Venice
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London SW1 (0303-123 7301, www.royalcollection.org.uk). Until 12 Nov
Canaletto (1697-1768) is “one of the most popular – and derided – of artists”, said Mark Hudson in The Daily Telegraph. His “defining” views of Venice and its “glittering ceremonial barges, darting gondolas and iconic buildings” are rendered with “nearphotographic precision”. Yet it is precisely because of this “sheer technical mastery” that many view him as the “ultimate in chocolatebox art”. A new exhibition at The Queen’s Gallery seeks to challenge this view by offering a much more “complex and contradictory” perspective. The show brings together a “sumptuous array” of Venetian paintings by both Canaletto and some of his lesser-known contemporaries. Everything in it was owned by Joseph Smith, an 18th century British consul to Venice, who acted as Canaletto’s dealer and who later sold his “vast” collection to George III. The exhibition proves that despite his reputation for meticulous detail, Canaletto could also be spontaneous and varied: his sketches, for instance, are “almost impressionistic”. You will leave with a “richer and more diverse sense” of Canaletto as an artist.
Many of the Venetian scenes here are “obvious, not to say touristy”, said Martin Gayford in The Spectator. But beyond the countless vistas of the Grand Canal, there are many less familiar views of the city. Venetophiles will be fascinated to see how Canaletto depicted landmarks that no longer exist, including churches and palazzi that were demolished to make way for Venice’s train station. Similarly intriguing are some “shadowy and mysterious” interior paintings of San Marco and his views of Rome – especially The Arch of Titus (1742), a work so “huge and looming” that it is almost “menacing”. Sadly, most of the works by other Venetian artists here are disappointingly “soft and sugary” – aside from a “marvellous” set of chalk portraits by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta.
Indeed, 18th century Venetian painting was generally “impoverished in technique and pictorial scope”, said Ben Luke in the London Evening Standard. Canaletto stood apart from this “malaise”, partly because he had trained as a theatrical scene painter – traditionally considered the “lowest rank among artists”. As a result, he was accorded scant respect in his home city, where he remains “little regarded” to this day. Yet scene painting allowed him to master “vivid effects” that made his work stand out, evident here in six paintings of the area around San Marco that count as his “greatest masterpieces”. True, Canaletto’s Venice was a “picture postcard” take on the city, but as this “excellent” show proves, at his best he was “magnificent”.