Venice: Bellotto Learns From Canaletto

Bellotto trained in his uncle’s workshop and absorbed Canaletto’s methods of close observation and creative transformation. In this room we see how he echoes his uncle’s precision, use of perspective, and interest in everyday life along the canals. We also see how his style is already marked by deeper hues and sharper contrasts of light and shadow (chiaroscuro). In the large painting of the Grand Canal, the figure attended by two companions (at the lower right corner of the composition) has been tentatively identified as Prince Frederick Christian of Saxony, who visited Venice from 1739 to 1740. If this proposal is correct, it may represent an early example of Bellotto’s commissions from Central European patrons, in contrast to his uncle’s focus on British clients.