“The wondrous lagoon”, as Henry James termed Venice in “The Portrait of A Lady”, is shown wonderfully in “Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals”, which opened on February 20 at Washington's National Gallery of Art.
“I adore Venice – have fallen deeply and desperately in love with it,” James wrote 130 years ago.
You’ll feel the same way about this exhibition of 20 masterworks by Canaletto, and 34 by his most talented contemporaries, including Francesco Guardi (novelist Mary McCarthy said his “early ‘views’ were the postcards of that period” -- the same could certainly be said of Canaletto's works; Bernardo Bellotto, a nephew and pupil of Canaletto’s; Michele Marieschi; Gaspar Vanvitelli; and Luca Carlevarijs.
They offer a variety of Venetian scenes, termed vedute (view paintings). Several of these artists' near-photographic depictions are of the same sites, offering opportunities to compare their styles.
As Goethe described Venetian views, “Everything around me is a worthy, stupendous monument…to a whole people.”
This is illustrated especially in Canaletto’s “The Piazza San Marco, Looking East”, one of his important early works in the exhibit.
Lord Byron, in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, termed Venice “The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy!”
Venice’s pleasant revelries like regattas and festivals are showcased in several important works, including Canaletto's 1733-1734 paintings, “The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day” and “A Regatta on the Grand Canal”, plus his rival Luca Carlevarijs’ “The Regatta on the Grand Canal in Honour of Frederick IV, King of Denmark and Norway, 4 March 1709”.
In Venice, Lord Byron wrote "Don Juan", based greatly on his own adventures. One of his lovers hurled herself from the lord's balcony into the Grand Canal.
Fellow writer George Eliot's (Mary Ann Evans') husband flung himself off their balcony into the Grand Canal on their first night in Venice.
Not all writers fell under the spell of “La Serenissima”.
D.H. Lawrence, author of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “Sons and Lovers”, hardly loved the city. In a poem, Lawrence called Venice an “Abhorrent green, slippery city…”
Absolutely gorgeous greenish hues are apparent in several of the works, especially Michele Marieschi’s “The Grand Canal with San Simeone Piccolo and the Scalzi”.
Marieschi, who lived only 33 years and died in 1743, was Canaletto's (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768) closest competitor, the museum says. Imagine what a rival Marieschi would have become had he lived longer.
Venetian view painting culminated with Francesco Guardi (1712-1793), who "anticipated the rise of romanticism in the 19th century, and emphasized the fragility of Venice," the museum adds.
The emphasis in this exhibition, compared to the National Gallery’s stupendous blockbuster “The Glory of Venice” in 1995, is rivalries that pitted Canaletto against his fellow painters.
Rivalries -- a perfect angle for the nation’s capital.
The only U.S. venue is Washington’s National Gallery, which organized the exhibition in cooperation with London’s National Gallery, where it had been on view until mid-January. DC's National Gallery show will run through May 30.
The exhibition here is part of ITALY@150, a series of activities throughout the United States, which celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification, and friendly relations between the U.S. and Italy.
Washington will celebrate Italian culture with “La Dolce DC” from March 1 to May 30, timed to coincide with “Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals”.
Be sure to see this most exquisite exhibit representing “this most improbable of cities”, as Thomas Mann wrote in “Death in Venice”.
Comments