Canaletto, Il Canal Grande con il Ponte di Rialto secondo il progetto di Palladio. Parma, Galleria Nazionale.

THE SPLENDOUR OF VENICE IN BRESCIA. Some information on the exhibition.

Martinengo Place in Brescia houses a new exhibition, which celebrates The Splendour of Venice and its undying myth in the collective unconscious.

The exhibition displays more than one hundred masterpieces by Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi and paintings by the most important eighteenth and nineteenth-century vedutisti (landscape artists), coming from both public and private collections from Italy and from foreign countries. The display shows that Vedutismo (landscape painting) didn’t end together with the end of the Republic of Venice; on the contrary, it went on during 19^th century as well.

Gaspar Van Wittel, L’ingresso del Canal Grande con la chiesa della Salute. Roma, Galleria Colonna.

The exhibition, entitled “The Splendour of Venice. Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi and nineteenth-century vedutisti” examines Vedutismo and underlines that its success continues over 19^th century, beyond Francesco Guardi’s experience.
Landscapes painted by these artists are crowded with characters in period customs and conventional characters from Commedia dell’Arte, and are often the settings of famous Venice festivals, such as Redentore, Historic Regatta, Sansa and Carnival.

The tour, which is precisely chronological, begins with the paintings by Dutch artist Gaspar Van Wittel and paintings by Luca Carlevarijis, an artist from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, who anticipated Canaletto’s artistic journey. The second part of the tour is dedicated to Canaletto himself.
Afterwards, the exhibition illustrates paintings by the greatest eighteenth-century artists, by Canaletto, and canvas by Francesco Guardi. Whereas Canaletto painted Venice’s charming beauty, Francesco Guardi, portrayed Venice as a vague and distant place. The tour ends with artists who worked from the second half of 18^th century until the first half of 19^th century. They depicted Venice in a style that was very similar to the Romantic standard of beauty.

This exhibition is full of proposal, fascination and inspirations.
Furthermore, you can see a series of refined engravings by Canaletto, Michele Marieschi, Antonio Visentini, Antonio Sandi and Giambattista Brustolon. They were specialists in etching and engraving.
The image of the Serenissima spread all over Europe owing to many impressions of the engravings.

The exhibition runs from 23 January 2016 to 12 June 2016.

Vincenzo Chilone, La loggia di Palazzo Ducale. Collezione privata.

Francesco Guardi, Veduta del Canal Grande verso il Ponte di Rialto. Londra, collezione privata.

INFO
The Splendour of Venice. Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi and nineteenth-century vedutisti.
Brescia, Palazzo Martinengo (via dei Musei 30)
23 january – 12 june 2016

CREDITS
CLP press office