Submitted by Sir Joshua, Mar 21, 2007 08:55

I think, what fascinates us about the artist is that he has a wonderful sense of natural light. His paintings are flooded with light and shadow. Like other Italian 'veduta' painters both of the 18th and earlier centuries, he depicts what he sees. He does not interperet anything. Perhaps a bit of visual distortion, but unlike Panini he does not move monuments around for the sake of convenience. What he does is memorialize, photograph-like, views which visitors to Venice or London saw, but in optimum light and total clarity. These were pictures for after-dinner conversations. Country house visitors wanted to recollect their visits to Venice and London so that they could point out the places of their travel to friends or share memories with other travellers much in a way you might look at a map and recollect a journey, but this time down to the tiniest detail. These were pre-photographic memories painted for his contemporaries, not us. We look back on them as a souvenier of a time past. We like Canaletto because he is crisp, consistant, accurate and always well lit. When seen on a wall, they jump out at us. They titilate us because they are of scenes that for the most part have not changed. Unlike Guardi who was a bit too poetic for the average Englishman, Canaletto didn't miss a brick. In looking back we must remember that we have come through several centuries in which aesthetics have changed. We really do have to put on our blinders as to what he was painting and not try to make Guardi out of Canaletto. He was a successfull photographer before the age of photography. Provenance is about the only thing you can kick around. Do we wonder about Nadar' private life and what made him tick? No. Ditto for Canaletto. That bridge he painted was just a bridge. Like that horse Stubbs painted was just a horse...of superb pedigree and gorgeous to behold, but still, a horse.

Canaletto painted views because that is what sold. He knew his market and obeyed it. He served it. Like the author commenting on how we can sense piety in Duccio. Dah! He was painting devotional art in an age when that was what sold. And human beings are notorious for having emotional relations with one another - as in the relationship between a Madonna and Child - than buildings have with each other. Hence, with Canaletto, what you see is what you get. Beddington's preoccupation with provenance, etc. is about the only semi-creative ball you can kick around with Canaletto. Aside from which it is very English. Like watching the Brit version of the Antiques Roadshow. 'That chair was in our family.' Dear God, help them. They think it's all aobut them.

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