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W. G. Constable. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. Ed. J. G. Links. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1976, vol. 1, pl. 11; vol. 2, p. 188, no. 2.

We have a magnificent view of the Grand Canal in Venice during the annual regatta, which was held on 2 February and attracted large numbers of visitors each year. All eyes are on the one-oared gondolas racing up the middle of the canal. Just right of centre two craft swing around the bend, tilted and almost touching, trying to catch up with the leaders. Another boat follows on the far right. Spectators cheer from windows and balconies, from gondolas and lavishly decorated bissone (eight- or ten-oared boats).

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Canaletto's vantage point for this bird's-eye view was a window on an upper floor of the Procuratie Vecchie, slightly to the north of the center line of the piazza, where the Procuratie abutted San Geminiano, the small church that was demolished in 1807 to make way for the Napoleonic wing of the Palazzo Reale. A virtually identical view appears in Le fabriche, e vedute di Venetia (The Met, 57.618), an album of 104 etchings by Luca Carlevaris (1663–1730), which was published in 1703. While the foreshortening of the architecture is the same in both scenes, the cast shadows in the etching indicate early morning. During the final decade of his life Canaletto had a new rival – Francesco Guardi (1712–1793) – who was to outlive him by 25 years and to provide a glorious final chapter in the history of Venetian view painting. By the 1770s Guardi was considered something of an authority on Canaletto’s work and throughout his career showed a willingness to borrow his compositions. Yet, as juxtapositions in the final section of the exhibition demonstrate, Guardi’s concerns were very different from those expressed by Canaletto.

Canaletto and the Art of Venice is the first publication to showcase in full the rich collection of eighteenth-century Venetian art held by the Royal Collection. It explores and discusses paintings, drawings and prints by Canaletto, as well as works by many of his contemporaries, including Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Antonio Visentini, Francesco Zuccarelli and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Lavishly illustrated, the book presents these works in the context of Smith as a collector, and looks at the links between art and theatre in Venice, as well as the role of the city as a centre for printmaking and book production. Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the sole U.S. venue for the show, and the National Gallery, London, where it is on view through January 16, 2011. Canaletto’s meticulous attention to detail remains part of his appeal according to Katherine Gazzard, Curator of Art at Royal Museums Greenwich. This painting is an early example of the subject matter Canaletto turned towards after deciding to give up on theatrical sceneries, though one can see those influences here in this impressive topography. Canaletto's superb mastery of perspective, a technique fostered under the Renaissance tradition of his native Italy, is also in abundant evidence. Indeed, art historian Bożena Anna Kowalczyk attributed his mastery of perspective to his time spent working in the theater: "the precise perspective ad angolo [angled], in keeping with the rules of theatrical scenography [...] governs the arrangement of the buildings in the space, as well as that of the cistern in the foreground." While Canaletto's later paintings and drawings would favor more naturalistic renderings of cityscapes, here we still see a clear foreshadowing of the vedute style for which he would become most well-known.Giovanni Antonio Canal, il Canaletto - Capriccio - The Grand Canal, with an Imaginary Rialto Bridge and Other Buildings - WGA03937.jpg Created over a nine-year period, when the artist was at the pinnacle of his career, the Woburn Abbey paintings are the largest set of paintings that Canaletto ever produced, and much the largest that has remained together. The Holburne exhibition provides a unique and unprecedented opportunity to see these exceptional paintings at viewing height, as they normally hang three high in the setting in the Dining Room they have occupied at Woburn since the late eighteenth century. The set features not only classic views of the Grand Canal and the Piazza S. Marco but also some of the city’s less well-known nooks and crannies, rarely captured by other artists and revealing new historical and cultural perspectives on Venice in its last decades as the “ most serene Republic”. After returning from Rome in 1719, he began painting in his topographical style. [8] His first known signed and dated work is Architectural Capriccio (1723, Milan, in a private collection). [1] Studying with the older Luca Carlevarijs, a well-regarded painter of urban cityscapes, [8] [9] he rapidly became his master's equal. Woburn Abbey is currently undergoing its biggest refurbishment since it first opened to the public in 1955. The renovations have therefore provided an ideal opportunity for The Duke and Duchess of Bedford generously to share a selection of Woburn’s greatest treasures with a wider audience, so they can be enjoyed in a different context with new narratives,” explains the Holburne’s Director, Chris Stephens.

The core of his market were English Grand Tourists looking to buy souvenirs to solidify their social status when they returned home," Gazzard says. "The Grand Tourists had the means and the incentive to buy his work.” Frances Vivian. Il Console Smith mercante e collezionista. Vicenza, 1971, p. 32, maintains that the views engraved by Visentini for the 1942 edition of "Prospectus Magni Canalis" passed through Consul Smith's hands. W. G. Constable. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. Ed. J. G. Links. 2nd ed., reissued with supplement and additional plates. Oxford, 1989, vol. 1, pp. xlvii, 110–15, pl. 50; vol. 2, pp. 277, 305–6, no. 240. The square now attracts large numbers of tourists,” points out the wall text, but there’s another difference – these buildings are now much better cared for. The rise of modern tourism is not a completely negative phenomenon. When it started in the 1800s, architectural theorists such as John Ruskin helped chronicle and celebrate every detail of Venetian medieval architecture. Restoration and cleaning preserved palaces that might otherwise have toppled over by now.The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars. Williams, George G. Assisted by Marian and Geoffrey Williams. (1973) Guide to Literary London. London: Batsford, p. 208. ISBN 0713401419 One of the paintings of the set of 24 is not included in the Holburne display, but can be viewed concurrently at the Queen’s House in Greenwich. Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, was born in Venice, the son of a theatrical scene painter. He was very influential, famed for his precisely depicted and evocative views of the city (vedute). Canaletto's early pictures for local patrons are his most accomplished: these carefully designed, individual, and atmospheric studies include 'The Stonemason's Yard'. This style is known as veduta, or ‘view painting’. It emerged during the 17th century, and involves depicting cityscapes and urban landmarks in remarkable detail.

This is one of the rare occasions that any of the successive Dukes of Bedford and Trustees of the Bedford Estates have lent the set of paintings since they arrived in Britain from Canaletto in the 1730s. Much of Canaletto's early artwork was painted "from nature", differing from the then customary practice of completing paintings in the studio. Some of his later works do revert to this custom, as suggested by the tendency for distant figures to be painted as blobs of colour – an effect possibly produced by using a camera obscura, which blurs farther-away objects – although research by art historians working for the Royal Collection in the United Kingdom has shown Canaletto almost never used a camera obscura.F. J. B. Watson. Canaletto. 2nd, rev. ed. London, 1954, p. 11, dates the Harvey series to the mid-1730s. Gondolas glide across the water, passing fishing boats which direct our gaze towards the mouth of the Cannaregio Canal, Venice’s largest waterway after the Grand Canal. The Ponte delle Guglie (‘bridge of the obelisks’), constructed in 1580 with an elegant balustrade and a pair of obelisks at each end, spans the water.