Escape to ‘Canaletto’s Venice’ in new exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland

The National Gallery of Ireland invites visitors to escape the Irish Winter to Canaletto’s Venice in a new exhibition.

‘Canaletto and the Art of Venice’ captures the colour, drama and vibrancy of the ‘floating city’ of Venice while capturing a high point in the Republic’s history.

Curated by Anne Hodge, the exhibition which opened Wednesday 5th of December 2018, comprises of paintings, drawings and print. 

Born in October 1697, Giovanni Antonio Canal grew up in Venice, the son of Bernardo Canal, a theatrical scene painter. Like his father, he trained as a theatrical scene painter and became known as ‘Canaletto’ (‘little Canal’). 

Canaletto abandoned the world of theatre to paint idealised views of his native city, which proved hugely popular as souvenirs among ‘grand tourists’ – wealthy foreigners, mainly from Britain and Ireland, who thronged Venice.

Widely regarded as an accomplished draftsman, the artist drew with painstaking attention to detail. Many of his drawings and preparatory works are included in the exhibition, giving visitors a unique opportunity to see the artist’s creative approach to his canvas from the outset to the finished oil painting .

A range of scenes from Venetian life are also on displa, including regattas and religious festivals, as seen in ‘A Regatta on the Grand Canal’ and ‘The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day’. 

Viewers can also see a display of all 12 of Canaletto’s famous Grand Canal series of paintings. His work is complemented by paintings and prints of religious and mythological scenes, from his contemporaries in Venice at the time, offering a fuller sense of Venetian culture of the period.

“Canaletto stands apart from his contemporaries for his treatment of landscape painting, which was not a highly regarded genre at this time” said Anne Hodge, curator of the exhibition.

“This exhibition offers us a special opportunity to see a large body of the artist’s work in one location and we are hugely thankful to the Royal Collection Trust for their enthusiasm and support in bringing this exhibition to Dublin” continues Hodge.

“The Grand Canal series is one of the highlights of the show. Joseph Smith, who commissioned these gorgeous views, displayed them in his palazzo on the Grand Canal, where he was regularly visited by patrons and Grand Tourists, many of whom commissioned their own versions. The paintings were probably double-hung in Smith’s grand salon but in this exhibition, I have had them hung singly to allow each image to be enjoyed as if one is travelling along the Grand Canal by gondola.”

Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, Sean Rainbird added:

“Venice is a fantastic city and remains a popular tourist destination, due, in no small part, to Canaletto’s depictions.

The works are on loan by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection and the exhibition arrives at the National Gallery following showings at The Queen’s Galleries at Buckingham Palace, London, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. 

Many of the ‘floating city’s’ iconic landmarks, such as the Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge, feature in the exhibition of nearly 100 works by Canaletto and his contemporaries, including Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Francesco Zuccarelli, and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta.

This exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to experience at a relaxed pace a city that has not changed very much since Canaletto’s time. I would encourage anyone who is planning a visit to Venice, or wants to recapture the experience of a previous trip, to visit the exhibition and take in the sights of Canaletto’s Venice.”

‘Canaletto and the Art of Venice’ is open at the National Gallery of Ireland and runs until Sunday, 24^th March 2019. Tickets cost €15/€10/€5 and Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland and children under 16 go free.