CANALETTO À VENISEC’EST AU MUSÉE MAILLOL

19 SEPTEMBRE 2012 > 10 FÉVRIER 2013billets coupe–file www.museemaillol.com

OUVERT TOUS LES JOURS DE 10H30 À 19H — NOCTURNE LE VENDREDI JUSQU’À 21H3061, RUE DE GRENELLE 75007 PARIS — MÉTRO RUE DU BAC

sous le haut patronage de la Ville de Venise

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PRESS RELEASE

CONTENTS

1- PRESS RELEASE 3

2- COMMISSION AND SCIENTIFIC COMITTEE 5

3- EXTRACTS FROM THE CATALOGUE 6

4- NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF WORKS 13

5- VISUAL DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR THE MEDIA 19

6- PRACTICAL INFORMATION 22

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PRESS CONTACTSAGENCE OBSERVATOIRE 68 rue Pernety 75014 ParisCéline Echinard 01 43 54 87 71celine@observatoire.frwww.observatoire.fr

MUSÉE MAILLOL59-61 rue de Grenelle75007 Paris Claude Unger 06 14 71 27 02cunger@museemaillol.comElisabeth Apprédérisse 01 42 22 57 25eapprederisse@museemaillol.com

1- PRESS RELEASE

The Musée Maillol pays homage to Venice with the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Canaletto’s Venetian works. The exhibition will be presented in partnership with the Foundation of Venice Civic Museums which is preparing to put on a Francesco Guardi retrospective at the Correr Museum in Venice to mark the 300th anniversary of that Venetian painter’s birth. Canaletto in Venice will be an exclusive occasion for visitors to enjoy the master’s vision of his city, brought to life through his paintbrush. Along the canals we discover places, islands, squares and monuments, views of a city that still retains its 18th-century charm. The Venetian painter certainly didn’t invent the veduta, or detailed cityscape, a genre that has ancient origins, but he helped to develop it by giving his paintings a modernity that allowed him to overtake his masters.

Canaletto (1697-1768) is the most famous of the Venetian vedutisti of the 18th century. Over the centuries Antonio Canal has never fallen from favour; his works have always been eagerly sought after by collectors. They seem to have an endless charm, unaffected by trends. Canaletto has the crystal clarity of a man who was faithful to the spirit of the Enlightenment, with a very personal vision of reality. His painting manages to capture the very essence of the light; it conveys a unique and sensual shimmering.

The exhibition will bring together more than 50 carefully selected works, from the greatest museums and some historic private collections. On display too will be his drawings and also the famous sketchbook from about 1731, a rare loan by the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe Gallerie the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery in Venice, which will be displayed open but which can be fully explored on computers.

Visitors will also be able to see a copy, made by Venetian master craftsmen, of the optical chamber used by Canaletto to make his drawings, thanks to a partnership with the superintendence of the Polo Museale of the City of Venice and the research of Dario Maran. It is taken from Canaletto’s original device, which was often used on a boat, made with carefully placed lenses that offered highly precise images that were unique at that time. Visitors will be able to see for themselves just how effective it was.

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Under the patronage of The City of Venice

MUSÉE MAILLOL

CANALETTO IN VENICE19 September 2012 -10 February 2013

In recent times Canaletto has had a central role in a series of ground-breaking exhibitions about the vedutisti, including the one in Rome curated by the much-missed Alessandro Bettagno with Bozena Anna Kowalczyk; The Splendours of Venice in Treviso in 2009, by Giuseppe Pavanello and Alberto Craievich; and more recently the outstanding shows in London and Washington, curated by Charles Beddington.

The exhibition at the Musée Maillol aims to be the last in this decade-long cycle by allowing Canaletto alone to lead the spectator around his city through his view paintings. The works on display will show how the artist developed his style. The juxtapositioning of his paintings of the same view will show how his early style, heavily influenced by the artist Marco Ricci and also by his training as a theatrical scenery painter, gradually evolved into interpretations of reality. These were imbued with an atmosphere that was both subtle and sublime, paving the way for painting that was to conquer Europe.

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2- COMMISSION AND SCIENTIFIC COMITTEE

• COMMISSION

ANNALISA SCARPAAn art historian who specialises in Venetian painting of the 18th century and Venetian view painting. After teaching at the University of Ca’ Foscari in Venice, alongside authorities on Venetian art such as Pietro Zampetti, Alessandro Brettagno and especially Terisio Pignatti, she spent many years studying Canaletto’s graphic art. With Ludovico Mucchi she published Nella Profondità dei Dipinti: La Radiografia nell’indagine Pittorica (The Profundity of Painting: Radiography in Art Research), analysing more than 200 Venetian view paintings using radiography. She is the author of important works on 18th-century Venetian art, Marco Ricci, Sebastiano Ricci and Jacopo Amigoni. She has curated a number of major recent exhibitions: Settecento Veneciano at the Academia of San Fernando in Madrid and at thr Museo ode Bellas Artes in Seville, as well as From Canaletto to Tiepolo at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. She is the curator of the Fondazione A. F. Terruzzi in Milan.

• SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

IRINA ARTEMIEVA, Curator of Venetian painting, the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

CHARLES BEDDINGTON, Art historian who was curator of two of the most recent and important exhibitions dedicated to Canaletto: Canaletto in England: a Venetian Artist Abroad 1746-1755 at Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 2006, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2007; as well as Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals at the National Gallery in London, 2010 and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 2011.

Alberto CRAIEVICH, Curator, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice, and Professore Emerito of the University of Ca’ Foscari

ALASTAIR LAING, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, the National Trust, London

FILIPPO PEDROCCO, Director, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice

LIONELLO PUPPI, President of the Centro Studi Tiziano e Cadore, Pieve di Cadore

ALAIN TAPIÉ, Chief Curator of Cultural Heritage• PROJET DIRECTORPATRIZIA NITTI, Artistic Director of the Musée Maillol

• SCÉNOGRAPHYHUBERT LE GALL

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LA FONDAZIONE TERRUZZILa Fondation possède environ mille oeuvres de peinture italienne du XVIIIe siècle, essentiellement vénitienne : Canaletto, Bellotto, Sebastiano Ricci, Magnasco, Amigoni, Pellegrini, Antonio et Gaspare Diziani, Piazzetta, Tiepolo, Guardi, Longhi, ainsi que des maîtres plus anciens tels que Paolo Veneziano, Cariani, Paris Bordone, Carpioni, Heintz, Tintoret, Luca Giordano, Strozzi. Elle possède également des œuvres du XIXe siècle, dont une importante sélection d’Ippolito Caffi. Grâce au mécénat de Guido Angelo Terruzzi, la Villa Regina Margherita de Bordighera, récemment rénovée, accueille une partie de la collection et des expositions temporaires.

3- EXTRACTS FROM THE CATALOGUE

• THE VENICE SKETCHBOOKby Annalisa Perissa Torrini, director of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery, Venice

The extraordinary sketchbook of Canaletto’s drawings, unique in the history of 18th-century Venetian art, has been in the keeping of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Accademia Gallery in Venice since 1949. It was a donation by Don Guido Gagnola, from the village of Gazzada Schianno in the Varese region of Lombardy, who said he had received it from his father. His father had owned it since 1895 but didn’t know where it had come from1.

This precious volume, already bound at the time, was authenticated in August 1840 by Giuseppe Borsato, who unfortunately was to put his heavy stamp on every page. Not long after the sketchbook entered the Accademia collections, Vittorio Moschini2 published two articles about it, and a facsimile edition was produced by Terisio Pignatti in 1958, then by Giovanna Nepi Scirè in 19973. It has only been on public display in London in 1990, and in Venice in 1982, 1995 and 1999. The critical value of this jewel of the art of drawing – important well beyond its 18th-century context – is far greater than its artistic merit. Indeed it is hardly mentioned in the numerous monographs and catalogues dedicated to the work of Canaletto, in which the sketches it contains are treated as just part of the body of his some 500 drawings.

The sketches in this book are very precise and made with great care. They are preparatory drawings representing the immediacy of a view, which will then be transformed in the painter’s mind when he makes the canvases that are supposed to reproduce reality. In this respect they show the process of Canaletto’s thinking, from the first idea to its development on paper, then on to the finished canvas. The drawings are annotated with information and observations that he will use when he turns the sketch into a painting. They reveal the way he in which he develops his works, which share a distinctive perspective based on a gradual reduction in the planes, with shortened silhouettes on the horizon. Based on topographical precision, Canaletto’s creative intelligence manages to combine all the different elements very convincingly. His notes include the names of palaces and shops, indications of a ferry or a gondola repair workshop, or he gives the exact number of windows or columns. He doesn’t forget to note down the colours – brown, white, yellow, black, off-white, red, ochre or yellow ochre – indicating whether their tones are light or dark. He also indicates sizes: “wider”, “a bit longer”, “narrower”, “correct”. Materials, too, are mentioned – lead, stone, brick, wood – and sites and even signs. When a panorama can’t be kept to one page, he divides it into sections that are developed on different pages, which he calls “strips”: “first strip on left”, or “first strip on

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1Cf. G. Nepi Scirè, Accademia Galleries. History of the Drawings collections Milan, 1982, p. 17-18, 24, note 186. Letters from 28 February and 15 May 1949 are conserved in the Archive of the Superintendence, Accademia Galleries, 2, Dons et legs 118/33, Book of the sketches of Canaletto donated by Don Guido Gagnola di Gaza from Schianto (Varese).

2 A book of Canaletto sketches donated to the Accademia Galleries in Venice, in “Bollettino d’Arte”, 1949, p. 279, and the book of Canaletto sketches to the Venetian Galleries, in “Arte Veneta”, 1950, p. 57-75.

3 T. Pignatti, The Notebook of Canaletto Sketches at the Venice Galleries, 1958; G. Nepi Scirè, Canaletto’s Notebook, Venice, 1997; Canaletto. The Venetian Notebook, edited by A. Perissa Torrini, Venice, 2012.

right”4. And if a bell tower is too big to be kept within the dimensions of the page, and therefore within the frame of the optical chamber on which the page was placed5, he cuts off a bit of the lower part, as can be seen on the pages showing Santa Maria Formosa, the dome of the church of St Simeon Piccolo and the façade of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul6.As the book is a collection of seven sections, and not a unified whole, it’s not possible to establish through historical or artistic research the date each painting was made7. So we tend to examine each section separately. Thus the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore, outlined in broad strokes, still has a spire on page 2v, whereas in 1728 it is shown in a bulb shape, only found in the first section, while the smaller seventh section can be considered separately8.

(...)

Even if drawing is a direct approach to reality, that doesn’t mean that things can’t be made bigger or smaller, highlighted or underplayed by the sort of “poetic licence” described by the painter Anton Maria Zanetti. This served to enhance the true novelty of Canaletto’s painting, which ensured “that the eye is deceived and believes it is seeing the real thing and not the painted version”, as Guarienti wrote in 1753. “He always goes to the site and takes everything down on the spot,” the Verona painter Alessandro Marchesini said of him in a letter in 1725-26. And Zanetti claimed that “in his paintings he joins pictorial licence to nature with such economy that his works appear to be real.” As Corboz points out, he had understood how distortions of reality could seem plausible, like the scenery in a theatre. That’s exactly what Canaletto is doing in the pages of his sketchbook, presenting scenes in the style of theatrical decoration, as he learnt in Rome from the scene-painter Andrea Pozzo. And, as recent studies of his modus operandi9 have suggested, he did this as soon as he started using the optical chamber. In his study, Dario Maran manages to establish its exact position, based on the architectural perspectives in the sketchbook, which he analyses (p 21v-25r), as well as suggestions for other sections. Maran shows how, by turning the mirror inside the chamber, buildings can be seen

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4 In the 8-page series, from p. 10v to p. 14; for example, Canaletto notes “banda drita” and “banda sinistra”, “l’isteso”, “altretanto”, “taca a mezzo”, meaning link to the centre, or “taca il passatà”, meaning link to the preceding, and “parti”, meaning bring them together.

5 Or fastened, as in section VII, where the perforations can still be seen (Cf. B. Biciocchi, An enigmatic work tool, in Canaletto, The Venetian Notebook, cit. 2012, p. 54-69), probably made to fix the sheet while the tracing was being carried out.

6 Page 17, the detail of La Specola – which couldn’t be shown on the preceding page because of lack of space as it was too low for the optical chamber – is suspended in the sky, an expediency the artist resorts to when the pages of the sketchbook are too small, especially for the bell towers and for La Specola.

7 The entire sketchbook is not unified but, according to critics, covers some ten years, from 1734 to 1744, as put forward by Moschini and Pallucchini, while Corboz suggests 1731 to 1746, and Bettagno between the end of 1720 and the beginning of 1730. Giobanna Nepi Scirè, on the other hand, suggests that it was made between the end of the 1720s and the middle of the following decade, while Constable and Links believe that most of the sketches should be placed around 1730, apart from page 2v, which they think dates from 1726 to 1727, and the rest a little later. Finally Ragghianti believes the whole sketchbook was made before 1730 and Pignatti dates it between 1728 and 1730.

8 Or with the rest, as it shows no stylistic or thematic features that could support any other date than 1731.

9 In Canaletto. The Venetian Notebook, cit. 2012, particularly Dario Maran, p. 40-53.

simultaneously, and that the entire scene unfurls on a tilt like a theatrical set “for a more truthful appearance of reality”. He also shows that the instrument must have been used on a boat for all the views of the Grand Canal, St Mark’s basin and the canals. In addition, various studies have brought further insights. One fundamental point is that, by following almost to the letter the rules of 18th-century theatrical scenography, the field of vision of these cityscapes in always contained inside a right angle, including the longest section in the sketchbook, showing St Mark’s basin.

Thus, starting from reality, traced with the help of optical instruments with “scientific” precision that only he knew how to make best use of, Canaletto managed to paint views of a real city. That’s what was demanded by his foreign clients, who loved Venice, just as the viewer wants to see it and remember it today, almost as a cinematic sequence in a film made in the 18th century.

•VIEWS OF VENICE AND ENGLISH PATRONSby FRANCIS RUSSEL, Deputy Chairman, Old Master and Early British painting, Christie’s

There are numerous views of Venice in renaissance devotional pictures, but it was only in the early 18th Century that Venetian topography became a significant preoccupation for major artists, of whom the first was the peripatetic Gaspare Vanvitelli, few of whose Venetian views were supplied to English patrons. The earliest significant native master of the genre was Luca Carlevarijs. The 4th Earl of Manchester, who was ambassador in Venice in 1707-8—at a time when Marlborough’s victories in Flanders greatly increased the significance of such an embassy—commissioned the artist to record his official entry (fig. ). Manchester persuaded Marco Ricci and Pellegrini to return with him to England, and just as they, and Ricci’s brother Sebastiano, worked for other noblemen in his circle when in England, so Carlevarijs was to receive commissions from other British patrons, including Lord Bateman.

In retrospect it is not difficult to see why the young Canaletto was established by the late 1720s as the vedutista of choice for the English. His artistic abilities were of course self-evident. He was helped by the illness and subsequent death of Carlevarijs, by McSwinny and, above all, by the leading English merchant at Venice, Joseph Smith, who acted as banker for many of those who made the Grand Tour. Both men were known to the 2nd Duke of Richmond, himself a grandson of King Charles II, but a committed Whig: he was an early patron of the artist and in 1746 was to commission two of his finest London views; and it was he who, in 1744, secured Smith’s appointment as Consul in Venice. The list of Canaletto’s major patrons in the 1730s reads like a roll call of the Whig establishment: the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole owned a masterpiece, while the closely related dukes of Bedford and Marlborough commissioned extensive sets of canvasses, and numerous others shopped less immodestly. Smith orchestrated many of their purchases, but he could only do so because there was a genuine taste for Venetian views, even from individuals—like indeed Sir Robert Walpole—who had not made the Grand Tour.

Canaletto was a meticulous and methodical artist. And of course he could not contend with demand. In recent decades, due to the work of Charles Beddington, Bozena Anna Kowalcyk and others, we have come to understand much more about the versions of his compositions, often larger than the prototypes and invariably more loosely and therefore quickly executed, which were supplied by Canaletto’s teenage nephew, Bernardo Bellotto. Some at least of these seem to have been marketed, apparently without compunction, as by Canaletto himself. But uncle and nephew had no monopoly. Pictures by their gifted contemporary, Michele Marieschi, were supplied in considerable number, most notably to the 4th Earl of Carlisle, who was assisted in Venice by the antiquary, Antonio Maria Zanetti: the incomparable View of the Bacino (now at Boston, fig. ) and a fine group of early Bellottos was complemented at Castle Howard by a set of smaller views by Marieschi.

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•CANALETTO, BEYOND IMITATION, A QUEST FOR ILLUSION

By Alain Tapié, Chief Curator of Heritage

The aesthetic agenda of the greatest of the vedutisti, Antonio Canal, seems to have had many elements: to expand space; to anticipate the desire for panoramas that was to preoccupy artists involved in colonial conquests throughout the first half of the 19th century; to display monuments so as to be able to see the smallest details; to make the dream of an intimate monumentality available to everyone through these views. It was also to offer to increasing numbers of people the privilege of embracing Venice by purchasing an expensive “veduta”, carefully composed by the artist so as to create a double image, in which the expensive finite, its economic value, is combined with the heavenly infinite, its poetical perspective. It was also about establishing different subjects, without worrying about the makeshift craft of drawing them with an optical chamber, even if they looked similar when seen in the series of paintings in which they featured. It was also about treating the air that circulates between the great buildings so as to magnify them, much as the Impressionists were to do with crude industrial landscapes; ensuring that every urban fragment contributes to “the glory of the city”. In all this, Canaletto, like the Impressionists, favoured the visual projection of a perception that was orderly but without any ranking.

This projection uses a different approach to reproducing scenes from the one made so familiar to us through our exposure to Impressionism, considered the model of modernity. Think of Monet and Boudin, who both painted in Venice, and who brought their subjects to life through texture, and a naturalistic, organic approach. Very differently, but equally audaciously, Canaletto gives his floating figures a bodiless physical independence as though identifying social entities who punctuate the space in infinite numbers, and who proliferate, calm and static, in the field of vision opened up by the scale and expanse. This complex layout opens up a dream world and helps to create the sort of illusions found in photography and cinema. Canaletto took the idea of composition using optics from Luca Carlevarijs, who in turn had inherited the Flemish meticulousness found in the landscapes of Pieter Brueghel and his contemporaries. Through this intricate weaving, details attain the significant role of signposting the world. Using this model, Canaletto explores a fundamental principle: painting not what is seen but what is – bricks, stones, paving stones, clefts, flaws, cracks – and at the same time painting what is not, but could be seen.

(...)

It is fair to say that Canaletto sometimes used the optical chamber when he needed to save time. So how can we assess the structural autonomy of paintings that, especially in the later works, attained such a lightness of touch that it seems skim the surface rather than digging in? In the urban landscapes there was a practical approach that gave pride of place to invention. When Canaletto set up a veduta, it was with the aim of researching it in depth. It seems paradoxical for a subject dominated by different planes: lagoon, facades, ground and sky. People, boats and gondolas are set out so as to contribute to the same feeling of distance. The optical effect thus created distributes the figures in a way that is both reasoned and random. The different planes, like the signs, buildings and human figures, are close and distant at the same time. A systematic adjustment of the bright light gives each of these figures the micro-proportions that enable us to determine social bearing without having to come up against anyone’s personality. Canaletto relied on graphic dynamics for his human figures, adjusting their appearances, bordering on the superficial and the outline. The ratio is reversed for the skies, the lagoon and the quaysides, which come to life through graphic resonance and bring out a monumental density. The rest is achieved by the broken tones and daylight colours of the Mannerist tradition, giving a feeling of unity, and bringing continuity to the different planes. The light and shade simply accompanies the reliefs, which gives the views a clarity without contrast, making all parts of each composition equally accessible to the eye.

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The sculptural sensibility of Canaletto’s images is not changed by the their optical structuring. Each view has an element of pure painting that doesn’t diminish the use of the camera obscura. It allows him to transfer distant or narrow spaces to paper, combining many points of view. The poetic tones are not arranged symmetrically. The speed at which the painter works corresponds to his aim to reproduce rather than represent. Thus the painter corrects the overall perspective, made up of partial views, so as to achieve a consistent view, by rebalancing the vanishing points that rise or fall excessively. He works on the stereotype of a first plane that is generally dark, to act as a foil, a second plane that presents squares, gardens and waterways, a third plane containing edifices and facades, and a higher fourth plane where we at last reach the sky. The achievement of the vedutiste consists in measuring the difficulty of the relationship between the details and the overall structure. There are three types of details and they are a source of invention, things that the artist puts in because he knows them, things that we shouldn’t see. They cause a tension within the image towards hyper-reality, metaphorical details: a fountain, a ruin, a column, a bit of vegetation; they act like a florid and capricious commentary on the objective base on which the space is built. There are the details of human life: those “figurines” that stand their ground in distant poses, the theatre of the everyday. Canaletto, that great painter of the veduta, shows his complete loyalty to the optical perception of reality by giving an intense and suspensive character to his compositions. The image acquires all the necessary simplicity.

In a romanticized view of art history, Alain Buisine describes the daily work of Canaletto: “It’s quite right to call it hand-made; it’s heavy, it soon causes ankylosis in the arm. You have to know how to use it, to be able to choose the right lens, to adjust the lenses so that the image is almost up straight, otherwise it will be blurred and inverted, and to correct the aberrations and distortions of perspective that it can cause. Finally, it’s essential to make this devilish optical machine stable and fully horizontal so that the rough tiling of the Venetian campi is never flat. It’s not at all as easy as people think, who naively assume that you just have to make a copy, that the drawing is finished in a trice and perfect. That would be too good to be true, and anyway it would mean that there would be no more need for professional draughtsmen. It’s very practical for expanding the space and doing a first sketch. Anyway all his vedutisti colleagues use it for this, too. It allows him to draw a simple, rapid scaraboto sketch, a large overall view that will give him his very first panoramic outline. … The important part comes later, when he divides this rough sketch into different sections, which he reworks in minute detail by hand and on the spot.”

That is the working method that allows Canaletto to meet his documentary obligations, to grasp exact architectural details and ceremonial rituals, since he is free of the succession of scenes and situations in the time sequence of events. Very different from the imitative process that tries to capture mobility, Canaletto creates poses in every scene, as though time is standing still.

By using an optical chamber Canaletto brings out the detail, captured for its own sake, yet used again in an overall unity, by a phenomenon of immersion due to the transformation through colour. All the chance signs and picturesque details thus become superfluous. It is the modernity of Canaletto that highlights the break with mere copying thanks to the way he captures illusion by optical means. The imagination that is liberated both by the structure and the layout of the details does not deprive the viewer of his desire for reality. In his Guide for Lovers of the Louvre Museum, Théophile Gautier offers this invitation: “If you haven’t been to Venice, stop in front of Canaletto’s painting showing the Madonna della Salute at the entrance to the Grand Canal and you will have made the journey. You will learn no more from the reality, the entire illusion is complete.” Gautier’s opinion goes to the heart of the matter, removing the need to resort to reference, for the pictorial process follows a different route. The Impressionist painters did much the same thing.

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•FACES AND MASKS.FROM THE "IMAGO URBIS"OF THE MYTH OF VENICE TO ITS DECONSTRUCTION IN

THE "VEDUTA"

By Lionello Puppi, President of the Titian and Cadore Study Centre, Pieve di Cadore, Emeritus Professor at the University of Ca’ Foscari

For the British traveller William Way (and all the pilgrims going to the Holy Land), the last stage before facing the sea, with its disagreeable troubles and terrifying dangers, was Veneciam, civitatem nobilem et grandem, which appeared in the splendour of a bright and living foretaste of Jersusalem.

An earthly sign of the heavenly Jerusalem (Puppi, 1982 and 1994, passim) its image of the Doge’s Palace and its palatine chapel, apparently reminiscent of Jerusalem, was constantly passed on. It had already been seen in Reuwich, Schedel and Carpaccio, not forgetting its presence in the background of The Judgement of Solomon (Florence, Uffizi Galleries), in the Virgin Reading (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum), and the Death of Adonis by Sebastian del Piombo (Florence, Uffizi Galleries). It is also to be found in Titian, in Saint Christopher (Venice, Doge’s Palace), and The Virgin with Saints (Ancona, Museo Civico), in Andrea Schiavone’s Annunciation (Belluno, church of St Pietro), the Flight into Egypt by Girolamo Savoldo, the Eternal Father Giving his Blessing, by Bonifacio dei’ Pitati (Venice, Accademia Galleries) and in the Foundation of the Hospice of the Crociferi, by Jacopo Palma the Younger (Venice, Oratory of the Crociferi).The composite visual image of Venice is even more eloquent when it is accompanied by processions (in the great canvas by Gentile Bellini, today in the Accademia Galleries in Venice, or in prints, such as the one showing the Nuptials of the Doge and the Sea, by Johannes Amman Jost, in the fine copy at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, or the Cortège in St Mark’s Square, published in 1610 by Giacomo Franco). With this in mind, we should note how this aspect was taken up and transfigured in the imaginary views of the city produced between the end of the 16th century and the last years of the 17th century, of which Stefania Mason has produced an interesting anthology, recently analysed and discussed by Pedrocco (2001, p. 30-37).

A symbolic reading seems more appropriate still when you look at the interaction between Mercury and Neptune, demonstrated by Ridolfi (1648, quoted by Sinding Larsen, 1980, p. 44), in the iconographic design of the Triumph of Venice that decorates the central medallion of the ceiling in the hall of the Pregadi in the Doge’s Palace. Especially because it takes centre stage, dominating all the other components of this symbolic machine in the nucleus of the building that was designed for the exercise of “the wisdom of the state”. As such, the secular fortune of such a position has been overlooked, whether by chance or through laziness. As has the influence of the very famous representation of the Utopian island, or the map of “the city of Temestian Mexico” that appears in the third volume of Giambattista Ramusio’s Navigazioni, or again in the vedute of Benedetto Bordon and Salvioni (cf. Schulz, 1970, and Cassini, 1971).

The fashion for vedute was born, evolved and developed obviously influenced by the success it found with these well-born travellers who swarmed to Venice. They were supplied with “postcards” to keep alive the emotional experience of having been there through a selection of sites that could capture the imagination, to make them believe they were among the myriad walk-on figures that were identical in the draft and varied in the finished product. To echo the observations of Starobinski, it was a production “that is not dissipative” but “variations on a theme”. As André Corboz (1994, p. 26-27) wrote so acutely: “Despite the extreme varieties of tone, all these Venetian views progressively create a copy which becomes a substitute for the city itself (both symbolic and a reality in stone), to the point that the real one is evaluated and judged on the basis of these views.”

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It is precisely the flexibility of this art, long considered not really “noble”, and thus less subject to the rules of historical, religious or portrait painting, which, in the particular environment of 18th-century Venice, offers to a Canaletto or a Francis Guardi (Corboz, 1994, p. 31-34) the chance to work brilliantly and freely, enabling them to scale the heights of lyrical and melancholic quality in their paintings.

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4- LIST OF WORKS

ANTONIO CANAL DIT CANALETTO

• PAINTINGS

Il Canal Grande da Palazzo BalbiLe Grand Canal, vu du palais Balbi1726-1728 environHuile sur toile45 x 73 cm Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

La Scala dei Giganti in Palazzo DucaleL'escalier des Géants du Palazzo Ducale 1755-1756Huile sur toile174 x 136 cmGrande Bretagne/ Alnwick, Collection of the Duke of Northumberland

Il molo dal bacino di San MarcoLe môle vu du bassin de San Marco 1740-1745Huile sur toile54 x 71 cmMilan, Pinacoteca di Brera

Le isole di San Cristoforo, San Michele e Murano dalle Fondamenta NuoveLes îles San Cristoforo, San Michele et Murano vues des Fondamenta Nuove 1724-1725 environHuile sur toile67x 127 cmSaint-Pétersbourg, Musée d’Etat de l’Ermitage

La chiesa di San Giovanni dei Battuti a Murano, con Venezia nel fondoL'église de San Giovanni dei Battuti à Murano, et Venise dans le lointain 1724-1725 environHuile sur toile66 X 127,5 cmSaint-Pétersbourg, Musée d’Etat de l’Ermitage

Basilica della Salute e la Dogana, dai pressi di Palazzo Cornaro La Basilique de la Salute et la Douane vues du Palais Cornaro1725-1730Huile sur toile46,5 x 91 cmBerlin, Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen

Piazza San Marco, verso la BasilicaLa place San Marco, vers la Basilique1735-1738 Huile sur toile80x127 cmCollection particulière

L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Chiesa della SaluteL'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la Salute 1740Huile sur toile72 x 112,5 cmCollection particulière

Piazza San Marco, con la Basilica e la chiesa di San Geminiano La Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique et l'église San Geminiano 1730 environ Huile sur toile61 x 95,9 cm Collection particulière, Courtesy of Museum of Fine Art, Houston

CannaregioLe Pont des trois arches sur le canal Cannaregio 1730 environHuile sur toile48,6 x 78,7 cm Collection particulière

Il Canal Grande, fra la chiesa di Santa Croce e quella di San Geremia Le Grand Canal, entre l'église de Santa Croce et l'église San Geremia 1730 environHuile sur toile48,3 x 77,5 cm Collection particulière

Il Canal Grande, con il Ponte di Rialto, da SudLe Grand Canal et le pont du Rialto, vu du Sud1733-1735Huile sur toile68,5 x 92 cmRome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini

Il Canal Grande, dal Ponte di Rialto, verso Ca'Foscari Le Grand Canal, vu du pont du Rialto, vers la Ca'Foscari1733-1735

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Huile sur toile69 x 94 cm Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini

Rio dei MendicantiLe Rio des Mendiants 1723 Huile sur toile144 x 207 cmVenezia, Ca’ Rezzonico, museo del Settecento Veneziano

L'ingresso al Canal Grande, dalla Piazzetta L'entrée du Grand Canal vue de la Piazzetta 1730Huile sur toile58,5 x 102 cmGrand Bretagne, KnutsfordThe Egerton of Tatton Park

La Riva degli Schiavoni, col Palazzo Ducale, verso estLa Riva degli Schiavoni et le Palais ducal 1730Huile sur toile110,5 x 185,5 cmGrande Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton Park

La Punta della doganaLa pointe de la Douane1740-1745Huile sur toile27,6 x 37,3 cm Collection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD, Londres

La Piazzetta, verso il moloLa Piazzetta, vers le môle 1740-1745Huile sur toile27,9 x 37,3 cmCollection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD, Londres

Le Chiuse di DoloL'écluse de Dolo 1763 Huile sur toile31 x 45 cmCourtesy of Robilant + Voena, London - Milano

La Torre di MalgheraLa Tour de Malghera1756 environHuile sur toile31,5 x 46,5 cm

Courtesy of Robilant + Voena, London - MilanoIl Canal Grande, da Palazzo BalbiLe Grand Canal vu du Palais Balbi1730Huile sur toile61 x 99 cm Bergame, museo dell’ Accademia Carrara

La Chiesa del RedentoreL'église du Redentore 1747-1755Huile sur toile60 x 94.5 cmCollection particulière

La Chiesa di San Geremia e l'ingresso a CannaregioL'église San Geremia et l'entrée de Cannaregio 1735-1742Huile sur toile46 x 63 cmVienne, collection du Prince de Liechtenstein

Ingresso al Canal Grande, con la Basilica della SaluteL'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la Salute 1730Huile sur toile53 x 70,5 cmMilan, FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Villa Necchi Campiglio, collection Alighiero ed Emilietta de’ Micheli

Capriccio col Ponte di Rialto secondo il progetto del Palladio, la Basilica di San Marco e uno scorcio di Palazzo Chiericati a Vicenza Caprice, avec le pont du Rialto d'après le projet de Palladio, la basilique San Marco, et le palais Chiericati à Vicence 1745 environHuile sur toile60 x 82 cm Parme, Galleria Nazionale

Isole della laguna nord viste da San Pietro in Castello Iles de la lagune nord vues de San Pietro in Castello1724-1725Huile sur toile63 x 108 cm Moscou, Musée d’Etat des Beaux-Arts Pouchkine

Isole della laguna nord da San Pietro in Castello e dall’Arsenale Iles de la lagune nord vues de San Pietro in Castello et de l'Arsenal1724-1725Huile sur toile63 x 108 cm

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Moscou, Musée d’Etat des Beaux-Arts PouchkineLa Piazzetta, verso la Torre dell'OrologioLa Piazzetta et la tour de l'Horloge1728-1729Huile sur toile135,5 x 137,5 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest Métropole Océane

Festa notturna alla chiesa di San Pietro in CastelloFête de nuit à l'église San Pietro in Castello 1745 environHuile sur toile97 x 131 cmLondres, collection Gert-Rudolf Flick

Il Canal Grande verso il rio di CannaregioLe Canal Grande vers le rio di Cannaregio1745-1750Huile sur toile46 x 78,5 cm Venise, Collection della Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia

L'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Basilica della SaluteL'entrée au Grand Canal et la Basilique de la Salute 1745-1750Huile sur toile46 x 78,5 cm Venise, Collection della Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia

Piazza San Marco, con il prospetto della Basilica e del Palazzo Ducale, la Loggetta e il Campanile di scorcio La Piazza San Marco vers la Basiliqueenviron 1747Huile sur toile56 x 69 cmCollection particulière

Il Ponte di Rialto, da sudLe Pont du Rialto, vu du Sud1730-1735Huile sur toile53 x 70,5 cm Collection particulièreLe Canal Grande vu du Campo San VioLe Grand Canal, vu du Campo San Vio, vers la Basilique de la Salute1723 environHuile sur toile84,7 x 120 cm Villa Vauban - Musée d'Art de la Ville de Luxembourg

Veduta del Bacino da Riva degli Schiavoni verso la Basilica della SaluteVue du bassin de la Riva degli Schiavoni vers la Basilique de la Salute1726-28 Huile sur toile47 x 59 cmCollection particulière

La Basilica di San Marco verso San GeminianoBasilique San Marco et le campo San Basso1722 environHuile sur toile41 x 59 cm Collection particulière

Veduta della laguna con ponteVue d'une île de la lagune avec un pont 1730-1740Huile sur toile23,8 x 39 cm Collection particulière

Palco con attori della commedia dell'arte Piazza San Marco con sfondo San GimignanoLa Commedia dell'arte en Place San Marco1720-23 Huile sur toile25 x 32,5 cm Collection particulière

Veduta della Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute Vue de la Basilique di Santa Maria della Salute 1756-1767Huile sur toile48,4 x 35 cmCourtesy of Collection Fenici

La Piazzetta verso la Basilica della SaluteLa Piazzetta vers la Basilique de la Salute1723 environHuile sur toile129 x 127 cm Collection particulière

Piazza San Marco verso la Basilica e Palazzo Ducale con la Loggetta sulla destra Vue de la Piazza San Marco vers la Basilique et le Palazzo Ducale avec la Loggetta sur la droite1760 environHuile sur toile57 x 70 cmCollection particulière

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• DRAWINGS

Quaderno dei disegni CagnolaCarnet de croquis de Canalettoencre sur papier1745-1750175 x 235 mm Venezia, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe delle Gallerie dell'Accademia

Case a Santa MartaHabitations à Santa Marta (recto et verso) 1758 environplume et encre foncée sur traces de crayon 180 x 283 mmCollection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano Lapicirella

Santa Marta, al limite della LagunaSanta Marta, à l’extrémité de la lagune (recto et verso) 1758 environpapier blanc, plume et encre foncée sur traces de crayon 175 x 282 mmCollection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano Lapiccirella

Il Canal Grande vicino a Palazzo FoscariLe Canal Grande près de Palazzo Foscari (recto et verso) 1758 environpapier blanc, plume et encre brune sur traces de crayon262 x 193 mmCollection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano Lapiccirella

Piazza San Marco verso Sud-EstPlace San Marco vers Sud-Est1740-43 papier blanc, plume et encre foncée 142 x 285 mm Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano Lapiccirella

Scuola Grande di San Marco1739 environpapier blanc, plume et encre foncée 185 x 205 mm Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano Lapiccirella

Scuola Grande di San Marco1739 environpapier blanc, plume et encre foncée, pierre noire sur le verso 171 x 205 mm

Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano Lapiccirella

Capriccio 1765 environpapier blanc, plume et encre foncée sur traces de crayon 185 x 275 mm Collection particulière, Courtesy of Damiano Lapiccirella

Porte del Dolo Les Portes de Dolo1763 papier blanc, plume, craie rouge, encre et lavis Collection particulière

• GRAVURES ET CHAMBRE OPTIQUELa Tour de Malgheraaprès 1733 Eau-forte294 x 424 mmVenezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

Mestreaprès 1733 Eau-forte294 x 424 mm Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

Le Porte del DoloLes portes du Doloaprès 1733 Eau-forte296 x 426 mm Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

La Libreria après 1733 Eau-forte142 x 205 mm Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

La Piera del Bandoaprès 1733 Eau-forte141 x 208 mm Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

Mercato sul MoloMarché sur le môle après 1733 Eau-forte142 x 207 mm Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

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Le Prigioni Les prisons après 1733 Eau-forte141 x 208 mm Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

Monumento equestreMonument équestre après 1733 Eau-forte139 x 205 mm Venezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

Le Procuratie Nuove a S. Ziminianaprès 1733 Eau-forte143 x 209 mmVenezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

La Terrazza La terrasseaprès 1733 Eau-forte132 x 207 mmVenezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

Paesaggio con pellegrino in preghieraPaysage avec pèlerin en prièreaprès 1733 Eau-forteVenezia, Museo Correr, Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni

EN CONTREPOINT

Bernardo CanalIl Canal Grande con il Ponte di Rialto Le Canal Grande avec le Ponte du Rialto1735-1740Huile sur toile186 x 306 cm Collection particulière

Francesco GuardiRegata in Canal Grande all'altezza dell'Ambasciata di Francia in Palazzo Mocenigo della TrezzaRegate sur le Canal Grande à la hauteur de l'Ambassade de France, Palazzo Mocenigo della Trezza1791Huile sur toile45 x 57 cm Collection particulière

Francesco GuardiBird's Eye view of VeniceVue de Venise à vol d'oiseau 1740Huile sur toile110 x 190 cm Londres, MOD Art Collection Ministry of Defence

Peintre vénitien du XVIIIe siècleRitratto di CanalettoPortrait de CanalettoHuile sur toile80,2 x 66,8 cm Collection particulière

Camera otticaChambre optique de CanalettoXVIIIème siècle Bois, verre et miroir380 x 242 x 225 mmVenise, Museo Correr

Manufacture vénitienneMaquette du projet pour le Palazzo Corner della ReginaXVIIIe siècleBois tailléVenise, museo Correr Manufacture vénitienneStemma Michieldébut XVIIe siècleBois taillé, peint avec dorureVenise, museo Correr

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Canaletto’s optical chamber

Venice, 18th centuryWood, glass and mirrors38 x 24.2 x 22.5cmVenice, Correr Museum

“Among the different models of optical chamber, the camera obscura was the most often used, especially by Canaletto, who gave his name to the one called “A. Canal”, preserved at the Correr Museum in Venice.“In this model an interior mirror tilted at 45 degrees captured the rays of light through a fixed focal-length lens, which send them to the upper side of the box above which is a screen of opalescent frosted glass, a horizontal plane on which the operator places sheets on which he can trace the buildings that appear.“The instrument has both advantages and limits: as a result the mirror intercepts the visual pyramid of the external image and reflects it onto the frame. Compared with a simple inverted image, this one is markedly clearer and the process is facilitated by the fact that the plane on which the image is returned is horizontal. However, even when the orientation of the image from top to bottom is correct (when it’s not reversed) the left-right inversion remains. So the image only has the correct direction if it is observed through the sheet, which necessitates a second phase of tracings. “Another limitation is caused by the frosted glass. In fact with this type of camera obscura the operator has to use the most transparent paper possible on which to trace his drawing. And the quality of the image also depends on the instrument’s fixed focal length.”Dario Maran

The Musée Maillol has funded the reconstruction of Canaletto’s optical chamber according to original plans, under the supervision of Dario Maran, author of the essay: “Canaletto and the use of the optical chamber” (in the exhibition catalogue). This optical chamber will be open to the public for the duration of the exhibition.

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5- VISUALS DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR THE MEDIA

1-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoIl Canal Grande da Palazzo BalbiLe Grand Canal, vu du palais Balbi1726-1728 environHuile sur toile45 x 73 cmFlorence, Galleria degli Uffizi© Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali

2-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoL'ingresso al Canal Grande, dalla PiazzettaL'entrée du Grand Canal vue de la Piazzetta 1730Huile sur toile58,5 x 102 cmGrande-Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton Park© NTPL/John Bethell

3-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoLa Riva degli Schiavoni, col Palazzo Ducale, verso estLa Riva degli Schiavoni et le Palais Ducal1730Huile sur toile110,5 x 185,5 cmGrande-Bretagne, Knutsford, The Egerton of Tatton Park© NTPL/John Bethell

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4-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoIngresso al Canal Grande, con la Basilica della SaluteL'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la Salute 1730Huile sur toile53 x 70,5 cmMilan, FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Villa Necchi Campiglio, collection Alighiero ed Emilietta de’ Micheli© Mario Govino, Fotografo

5-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoL'ingresso al Canal Grande con la Chiesa della SaluteL'entrée du Grand Canal et la Basilique de la Salute 1740Huile sur toile72 x 112,5 cmCollection particulière© Collection particulière / DR

6-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoIl molo dal bacino di San MarcoLe môle vu du bassin de San Marco1740-1745Huile sur toile54 x 71 cmMilan, Pinacoteca di Brera © Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali

7-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoLa Punta della doganaLa pointe de la Douane1740-1745Huile sur toile27,6 x 37,3 cmCollection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD, Londres© Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD

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8-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoLa Piazzetta, verso il moloLa Piazzeta, vers le môle 1740-1745Huile sur toile27,9 x 37,3 cmCollection particulière, Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD, Londres© Courtesy of Jean-Luc Baroni LTD

9-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoLa Chiesa del RedentoreL'église du Redentore1747-1755Huile sur toile60 x 94,5 cmCollection particulière.© Galerie de Jonckheere

10-Antonio Canal dit CanalettoLa Scala dei Giganti in Palazzo DucaleL'escalier des Géants du Palazzo Ducale 1755-1756Huile sur toile174 x 136 cmGrande Bretagne/ Alnwick, Collection of the Duke of Northumberland© Collection of the Duke of Northumberland

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5- PRACTICAL INFORMATION

MUSÉE MAILLOL - DINA VIERNY FOUNDATION

59-61, rue de Grenelle75007 ParisTél : 01 42 22 59 58Fax : 01 42 84 14 44Métro : Rue du BacBus : n° 63, 68, 69, 83, 84www.museemaillol.com

OPENING TIMESEveryday from 10.30 am to 7 pm, including public holidays. Late night on Fridays, until 9.30 pm

TICKET PRICES Full rate : 11 euros Concessions : 9 euros Free for under-11s

BOOK ON LINE www.museemaillol.comwww.fnac.com

Descriptions of 25 major works are available on the audioguide and the museum's smartphone app

RESTAURANT Italian restaurant " La Cortigiana "Open everyday from 10.30 am to 5 pm. Private bookings are available for mornings and evenings.

CHILDREN'S WORKSHOPS « The mysteries of Venice »Lasts 90 minutes (visit + workshop + snack)Open to children aged 7 to 11Price : €18 From 26 September 2012 to 9 February 2013Every Wednesday from 3pm to 4.30pmEvery Saturday, 11am to 12.30pmDuring school holidays contact us for datesReservations : enfants@museemaillol.com

PRESS CONTACTS

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AGENCE OBSERVATOIRE 68 rue Pernety - 75014 ParisCéline Echinard 01 43 54 87 71celine@observatoire.frwww.observatoire.fr

MUSÉE MAILLOLClaude Unger 06 14 71 27 02cunger@museemaillol.comElisabeth Apprédérisse 01 42 22 57 25eapprederisse@museemaillol.com