Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum, addito Certamine Nautico et Nundinis Venetis: Omnoa Sunt Expressa ex Tabulis XIV. Pictis ab Antonio Canale, in Aedibus Josephi Smith Angli...

BEAUTIFUL VIEWS OF VENICE

First edition, first issue. 450 by 385mm. Engraved title-page, double portrait after Giovani Piazette, and 14 engraved plates, a touch ragged at the edges. Watermarked "IHS / Villedary" Loose as issued. Venice,

A very good set with wide margins, these are strong early impressions of what became much used plates. A student of Luca Carlevaris, Canaletto (1697-1768) "was inspired by the busy social and mercantile life, by the intricate topography, and, occasionally, by the arcane traditions of his native city ... Canaletto was interested in clarifying, rather than obscuring, the particular, and in making everything look (sometimes deceptively) real" (Baetjer). For forty years, almost his entire oeuvre depicted Venice, and he influenced the likes of J.M.W. Turner.  The series was engendered by the English dilettante Consul Smith who owned the paintings herein pictured.

 

The beautiful engraved title-page by Angela Baroni is followed by the handsome double portrait of Canaletto and Visentini, and fourteen stunning views of the Venetian canals, depicting major sites along the Grand Canal. They are as follows:

 

1. Ex Ponte Rivoalti ad Orienten ... 2. Ab Aedibus hinc Foscarorum ... 3. Hinc ex Aede Charitatis ... 4. Hinc ex Platea S. Viti ... 5. Ex Aede Salutis, usque ad Caput Canalis. 6. Caput Canalis et Ingressus in Urbem. 7. Pons Rivoalti ad Occidentum ... 8. Hinc ab Aedibus Publicis Rivoalti ... 9. Ab Aedibus hinc Grimanorum ... 10. Ingressus in Canalem Regium ex Aede S. Jeremiae. 11. Hinc ex F.F.D. Discalceatorum Templo ... 12. Ex Fullonio usque ad Aedem S. Clarae ubi Canalis desinit. 13. Nauticum Certamen cum Prospectu ab Aedibus Balborum ... 14. Bucentaurus et Nundinae Venerae in die Ascensionus.

 

Two further parts were later published and the full run of thirty-eight plates appeared under the title Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores in 1742.

 

That these  are the 1735 issue can be assured by the absence on plate 10 of the statue of St. John Nepomuk,  which was erected in 1742 when Visentini's plate was then updated  to include the statue, as indeed  was Consul Smith's painting. See Michael Levey Canaletto's Fourteen Paintings and Visentini's Prospectus Magni Canalis. The Burlington MagazineVol. 104, No. 713 (Aug., 1962)

 

Baetjer, K., "Canaletti Painting: On Turner, Canaletto, and Venice" in Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 42 (2007), p.163.

Stock Code: 232008