The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (86 page)

(1697–1768).
Venetian painter, the most famous view-painter of the 18th cent. He began his career as a theatrical scene painter (his father's profession), but he turned to topography (see
VEDUTA
) during a visit to Rome in 1719–20, when he was influenced by the work of Giovanni Paolo
Panini
. By 1723 he was painting picturesque views of Venice, marked by strong contrasts of light and shade and free handling, this phase of his work culminating in the splendid
Stone Mason's Yard
(NG, London,
c.
1730). Meanwhile, partly under the influence of Luca
Carlevaris
, and largely in rivalry with him, Canaletto began to turn out views which were more topographically accurate, set in a higher key, and with smoother, more precise handling—characteristics that mark most of his later work. At the same time he began painting the ceremonial and festival subjects which ultimately formed an important part of his work. His patrons were chiefly English collectors, for whom he sometimes produced series of views in uniform size. Conspicuous among them was Joseph Smith , a merchant, appointed British Consul in Venice in 1744. It was perhaps at his instance that Canaletto enlarged his repertory in the 1740s to include subjects from the Venetian mainland and from Rome (probably based on drawings made during his visit as a young man), and by producing numerous
capricci
. He also gave increased attention to the graphic arts, making a remarkable series of etchings, and many drawings in pen, and pen and wash, as independent works of art and not as preparation for paintings. Meanwhile, in his painting there was an increase in an already well-established tendency to become stylized and mechanical in handling. He often used the
camera obscura
as an aid to composition. In 1746 he went to England, evidently at the suggestion of Jacopo
Amigoni
(the War of the Austrian Succession drastically curtailed foreign travel, and Canaletto's tourist trade in Venice had dried up). For a time he was very successful, painting views of London and of various country houses. Subsequently, his work became increasingly lifeless and mannered, so much so that rumours were put about, probably by rivals, that he was not in fact the famous Canaletto but an impostor. In 1755 he returned to Venice and continued active for the remainder of his life. Legends of his having amassed a fortune in Venice are disproved by the official inventory of his estate on his death. Before this, Joseph Smith had sold the major part of his paintings to George III, thus bringing into the royal collection an unrivalled group of Canaletto's paintings and drawings. Canaletto was highly influential in Italy and elsewhere. His nephew Bernardo
Bellotto
took his style to Central Europe and his followers in England included William
Marlow
and Samuel
Scott
.

 
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Candlelight Master
.

See
BIGOT
.

 
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(1601–67).
Spanish sculptor, painter, architect, and draughtsman, sometimes called ‘the Spanish
Michelangelo
’ because of the diversity of his talents. He was born and died in Granada, and worked there and in Seville and Madrid. His movements were partly dictated by his tempestuous character, for more than once he fled or was expelled from the city he was working in (once for the suspected murder of his wife). In spite of his violent temperament, his work tends to be serene and often sweet. He studied painting in Seville with
Pacheco
(
Velázquez
was his fellow-student) and sculpture with
Montañés
, and stayed in the city from 1614 to 1638, when he moved to Madrid to become painter to the Count-Duke Olivares and was employed by Philip IV to restore pictures in the royal collection. Thus he became acquainted with the work of the 16th-cent. Venetian masters, whose influence is apparent in his later paintings; they are much softer in technique than his earlier pictures, which are strongly lit in the manner of
Zurbarán
. From 1652 he worked mainly in Granada, where he designed the façade of the cathedral (1667), one of the boldest and most original works of Spanish
Baroque
architecture. He was ordained a priest in 1658, as this was necessary for him to further his carrer at Granada Cathedral. The cathedral has several of Cano's works in painting and sculpture, including a
polychrome
wooden statue of the
Immaculate Conception
(1655) that is sometimes considered his masterpiece.

 
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(1757–1822).
Italian sculptor. He was the most successful and the most influential sculptor of the
Neoclassical
movement, outdoing even
Thorvaldsen
and
Flaxman
in international fame and prestige. Born in Possagno, near Treviso, the son of a stonemason, he became assistant to a local sculptor and moved with him to Venice in 1768. His early work is lively and naturalistic (
Daedalus and Icarus
, Museo Correr, Venice, 1779), but after he settled in Rome in 1781 his style became graver and thoroughly imbued with
antique
influence.
Theseus and the Minotaur
(V&A, London, 1781–3) was his first major work in Rome, and he soon followed this with the prestigous commission for the tomb of Pope Clement XIV in SS. Apostoli (1783–7). After this Canova never looked back. He ran a large studio and worked for a galaxy of European notables, including Napoleon (who tried unsuccessfully to bring him to Paris), the Duke of Wellington, and Catherine the Great of Russia; his portrait of Napoleon's sister (
Pauline Borghese as Venus
, Borghese Gal., Rome, 1805–7) is one of his most celebrated works, a marble equivalent to
David's
Madame Récamier
. Canova worked much for the papal court and in 1815 he became the Pope's representative in recovering works of art looted by Napoleon ; on his visits to Paris and London he was fêted. In 1816 he was created Marchese d'Ischia by the Pope and he retired to Possagno, where he built a studio that is now a museum devoted to him. Canova was immensely influential and was renowned for his generosity to young sculptors. He went out of favour during the
Romantic
period, when his work seemed cold and static, but his reputation has greatly revived in the 20th cent. His work, in fact, was always much more individual than that of many of his Neoclassical contemporaries and he placed great importance on the personal handling of his material.

 
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