Canaletto’s Legacy

 

 

119. The Torre dell’Orologio
and Part of San Marco, c. 1740-1745.

Pencil and ink, 27 x 37.5 cm.

The Royal Collection, London.

 

 

Bellotto, Nephew and Disciple

 

Bernardo Bellotto was for a long time thought to have been born in Venice in 1724, according to a number of biographical dictionaries. But in a very brief note from the director of the industrial arts museum of Rome in 1914, Julio Ferrari places his birth date January 30, 1723. It would seem that Bellotto was actually born during 1721, about the same time his uncle came back to the lagoons after spending some time in Rome. His birth was, without a doubt, a major event in Canaletto’s peacefully arranged life that came about when he was barely twenty-four years old, a convenient moment for these types of joys, especially considering his relative lack of brothers, sisters and cousins.

 

What social class did little Bernardo Bellotto’s father belong to? Was he a painter, an engraver or some obscure artisan? No light can be shed on this matter. Therefore, no-one can really speculate about the newborn’s heredity. We should acknowledge that he was a naked mystery of a child, without even the most rudimentary blanket of documentary evidence regarding his origins. Likewise, we know very little about his childhood or his intellectual and artistic training. He was certainly indebted to his only uncle, who modelled him in his image and transformed him into his one and only heir by his seeds of talent. Even more, Bellotto was Canaletto’s true disciple of choice, his successor, his double, or if one prefers, his alter ego.

 

It is assumed that the young Bellotto’s first serious attempts at painting took place when he was about sixteen or seventeen years old, perhaps in the studio of his grandfather, Bernardo Canal. Continuing the family tradition, he initially painted theatrical scenery, probably until 1742. This young Venetian then became the student of his avuncular sponsor until, adventurous spirit that he was, he began to track across Europe with so much frenzy that none have pinpointed with any accuracy the dates and durations of his various stays in Rome, London, Munich, Dresden, Pirna, Vienna, Saint Petersburg and Warsaw.

 

When Bellotto began his painting career, Canaletto, who was more than forty years old at the time, was producing more work than at any other point in his career. In his uncle’s studio, Bellotto in all likelihood met a fellow disciple in the remarkable person of Francesco Guardi who, although he was not yet thirty years old, was already warming up to rare good fortune in the art of painting, as much through the science of colouration and character composition as through the range of harmonies in his landscapes. He would end up on equal footing with his master Canaletto and be classified along with the brilliant Giambattista Tiepolo and Pietro Longhi, who likewise had come to Canaletto’s studio. As he approached the age of forty, he composed brilliant, very orthodox religious works before he started to approach the truly Venetian gallant and carnival subjects, the only that were valued as paintings evoking the era with superior vision. Likewise, Rotari must have doubtlessly showed up there before he started thinking about leaving Venice. Therefore one sees almost all the painters who had been purely Venetian before 1750 filing into Canaletto’s studio. This provided Bellotto with an environment favourable for his artistic development, just like Bernardo Canal’s studio had done for Canaletto. Bellotto grew up this way, in the shadow of his uncle. Is there any doubt that he was ambitious early on because he was convinced that success would be close at hand? Was he a short, tall, handsome or conceited man? There are no images of his face that have come out of that time. Nor are there any details about his personality or youthful adventures. But it seems that he must have been a man who was sure of his value. There was hardly any risk of modesty putting a damper on his career.