No. 94257978

Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780), Circle of - Scena teatrale - NO RESERVE
No. 94257978

Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780), Circle of - Scena teatrale - NO RESERVE
Important ancient collectible painting
Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780) Workshop
“Theatrical scene”
Oil on canvas, fragment of a larger scene (or sketch)
Canvas size: 46 x 25 cm - re-lined
The work, of beautiful pictorial quality, is in an excellent state of conservation. It could be a fragment of a larger work or a preparatory sketch, placed in the mid-18th century in Venice and has been identified as a painting coming from the important workshop of the painter Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780).
***** Work presented exceptionally without reserve price
Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780), a European interpreter of eighteenth-century Venetian vedutism (with names such as Antonio Canal, Luca Carlevarijs, Francesco Guardi, Michele Marieschi ...), would have been for centuries the reference voice for the great landscape painting from beyond the Alps, a precursor of the nineteenth-century romantic and realist feeling for the landscape and its inhabitants, a language that became official only with Courbet and Corot. Grandson of the former theatre set designer and first among the vedutists, namely Canaletto, Bernardo would have trained in his workshop, leaving it once and for all in 1747, headed to the Saxon court to become its official painter. He would never see his home, Venice, again, living his life (and his career) until the end among the great continental European courts. There have been, and are, frequent problems of attribution of the works of his uncle and nephew respectively: it was in fact the practice of Bellotto to sign, after leaving the family workshop, with the pseudonym of his uncle Canaletto, in order to make his own the fame that accompanied that name. A fame that his personal works were able to keep high, as they had a taste, a clarity and a precision found only in the best creations of his uncle: it is no coincidence that, even today, in the countries where Bellotto worked (Germany, Austria and Poland) he is addressed first and foremost as “Canaletto”, thus overtaking the original Canaletto, Antonio Canal, in terms of artistic importance.
Antonio Canal himself, in London in 1746, was the victim of a rumor that he was a shopkeeper of the real “Canaletto”, that is, a usurper intent on living off someone else’s name: this was possible precisely because Bellotto, in the meantime, had established himself as a great artist, thus making his uncle seem like an emulator acting as the one, true and inimitable artist. To dispel these rumors, Canal published an ad in the Daily Advertiser in 1749 with the aim of inviting anyone interested to his studio, to observe his works undoubtedly “made in Canaletto”. To complicate matters, another mysterious Venetian view painter was added, this time called “Canalety”, working in France in those years: Bernardo’s brother, Pietro Bellotto (1725-1790). Therefore, a complex story of attribution and always full of problematic knots. Fortunately, for many years now, the figure of Bernardo Bellotto has been thoroughly investigated and isolated within the fervent artistic panorama of the European eighteenth century, thanks to various exhibitions and subsequent studies. Precisely to grasp the most “unpublished” aspect of Bellotto’s art, we will see here an extremely rare composition for a view painter, who would like to be canonically devoted to the sole creation of natural and architectural elements contextualized in reality.
This is the Allegory (a work depicting a concept) “Ex Arduis Immortalitas”, part of a pendant (a pair of paintings to be read together, typical of the vedutist practice) with the only other allegory made by Bellotto, the “Inclinata Resurgit”. What immediately catches the eye is the attention dedicated by the prince of vedutisti (if we wanted to define Canal as their king) to human faces, clothes, expressions and gestures: an ability to render humanity that is almost unique in this genre. After all, Bellotto was one of the few vedutisti who inserted real portraits of clients and notable personalities within his views (starting from his Viennese phase of 1759-60 with the princes Liechtenstein and Kaunitz).
Coming from an important private Italian collection
With certificate of authenticity in accordance with the law
Professional packaging
The frame in the photo has been used for demonstration purposes only. The work will be delivered and shipped with a free gilded wooden frame and is considered a gift attached to the work of art. It will be delivered with the painting free of charge. No disputes will be accepted on the same or complaints about hypothetical transport damage, relating to the frame.
Insured shipping
Safety packaging
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