Venice in the 18th century became the subject of choice for painters. Europe has many beautiful cities but only Venice inspired a school of view painters who depicted the city, palazzo by palazzo, representing views that are still recognizable today.

The most beautiful and famous ‘veduta’ (view) paintings of Venice are set to go on display at Brescia’s Palazzo Martinengo from January 23 to June 12 in the exhibit ‘Splendor of Venice: Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi and the ‘vedutisti’ of the 1800s’.
About 100 masterpieces from the 18th and 19th centuries will be on display, from prestigious private and public collections both Italian and international. The show reveals the charm of the lagoon city that, more than any other, has represented a timeless myth in the collective imagination.

This exhibit doesn’t stop with Francesco Guardi, as so often happens in shows of the vedutisti, but rather continues through the decades of the 19th century as well. Curator Davide Dotti selected significant works that manage to cross 200 years of painting history, while the paintings populated by actors in period costumes and characters from the Commedia dell’Arte often frame famous Venetian celebrations like the Feast of the Redeemer, the Historic Regatta, and Carnival animated by its traditional masks.

via L’Italo-Americano