Bernardo Bellotto ( urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching famous for his vedute of European cities – Dresden, Vienna, Turin, and Warsaw. He was the student and nephew of the renowned Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself as Bernardo Canaletto.

Bellotto's style was characterized by elaborate representation of architectural and natural vistas, and by the specific quality of each place's lighting. It is plausible that Bellotto, and other Venetian masters of vedute, may have used the camera obscura in order to achieve superior precision of urban views.]]

Bellotto was born in Venice, the son of Lorenzo Antonio Bellotto and Fiorenza Canal, sister of the famous Canaletto, and studied in his uncle's workshop. At the end of 1761, Bellotto returned to Dresden.

When King Augustus III of Poland, also Elector of Saxony, who usually lived in Dresden, died in 1763, Bellotto's work became less important in Dresden. As a consequence, he left Dresden to seek employment in Saint Petersburg at the court of Catherine the Great. On his way to Saint Petersburg, however, Bellotto accepted an invitation in 1764 from Poland's newly elected King Stanisław August Poniatowski to become his court painter in Warsaw from 1768.

  • The Fortress of Königstein: Courtyard with the Magdalenenburg Manchester Art Gallery
  • The Fortress of Königstein from the North National Gallery, London
  • The Fortress of Königstein from the South-West (private collection, Earl of Derby)
  • The Fortress of Königstein (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

Warsaw

  • Church of the Sisters of St Bernard and the Column of Sigismund III in Warsaw from the descent towards the Vistula (1768–1770) Royal Castle, Warsaw
  • View of Warsaw with the Vistula from the Praga Suburb (1770) Royal Castle, Warsaw
  • View of the Wilanòw Meadows (1775) Royal Castle, Warsaw
  • Miodowa Street (1777) Royal Castle, Warsaw
  • Kraninski Square in Warsaw (1778) Royal Castle, Warsaw
  • Iron-Gate Square in Warsaw (1779) Royal Castle, Warsaw
  • The Carmelite Church in Warsaw (1780) Royal Castle, Warsaw

Other

  • Das kaiserliche Lustschloß Schönbrunn, Ehrenhofseite (1759–1760) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • Vienna seen from the Belvedere (1758–1761) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • Capriccio with Christ Driving the Moneylenders from the Temple (1765–1766) National Museum, Warsaw
  • Capriccio with a River and Bridge (c. 1745) Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Notes

References

  • Manuel Mayer: Ein Schlag aus heiterem Himmel. Bernardo Bellottos Kaiserliches Lustschloss Schloss Hof von der Ehrenhofseite, in: Mitteilungen des Vereins für Landeskunde von Niederösterreich, 2/2026-1, St. Pölten 2026, S. 31-57, ISSN 3061-0605.
  • Beddington, Charles. Bernardo Bellotto and His Circle in Italy. Part I: Not Canaletto but Bellotto. Burlington Magazine 146, no. 1216 (Cct. 2004): 665–674.
  • " Bernardo, zwany [known as] Canaletto", Encyklopedia Polski, p. 42.
  • STEPHANE LOIRE, HANNA MALACHOWICZ, KRZYSTOF POMIAN, ANDRZEJ ROTTERMUND. "Bernardo Bellotto, Un pittore veneziano a Varsavia" . Book edited by Andrzej Rottermund, Director of the Royal Castle at Warszawa and Henry Loirette, Director of the Louvre Museum (Paris), from the Louvre Museum Exhibition of Bernardo Bellotto at the Warszawa Royal Castle from 7 October 2004 to 10 January 2005. 5 Continents Editions srl, Milano, (2004). . 134 pages with over 65 big size color photographs within.
  • Biography and Gallery
  • Bernardo Bellotto in the "A World History of Art"
  • Bernardo Bellotto in the "WikiArt"
  • Gallery of Canaletto's paintings, in particular many views of Dresden and Warsaw
  • How Bellotto's illustrations were used as inspiration to rebuild Warsaw's Old Town
  • National Trust images of the collection at Petworth house