846 massimo favilla, ruggero rugolo, and dulcia meijers
ceremonies and festivities, or receptions of foreign officials, such as the
arrival in 1707 of the British ambassador, Lord Manchester, painted by
Luca Carlevarijs.91 in Carlevarijs’s view, the Piazzetta, the city’s official
entrance, and the Ducal Palace provide the picturesque backdrop to the
scene. the waving outlines of sails of various types of ships and boats
that allude to the bustle of maritime activities break the openness of the
sky. in age, Carlevarijs formed part of the same generation as Bambini,
Lazzarini, Dorigny, ricci, and Brustolon. a previous work of his, executed
six years earlier, that immortalizes the entrance of the French envoy Car-
dinal César d’estrées, has often been taken as the start of a new genre
introduced in Venice: the cityscape or veduta.92 it was actually a restart.
tellingly enough, the genre hardly occurred in Venice in the 1600s. rec-
ognizable outdoor urban settings staging official ceremonies had come to
fruition around the same time elsewhere in italy as well. it would now
become a field in which Venetians excelled, with Canaletto, perhaps Carl-
evarijs’s pupil but soon to become his great rival, with Guardi in a very dif-
ferent manner, and with Bellotto primarily abroad, poised to excel in it.93
at the beginning of his career, Canaletto could boast various state and
local commissions, but later on he catered more to foreigners who made
short and longer term visits to the islands of the lagoon. He took a similar
panoramic viewpoint as Carlevarijs when he fixed in paint the arrival of
the politically important and influential diplomat of the Viennese court,
Count Giuseppe Bolagnos, in 1729.94 the whole urban environment has
been rendered with great topographical correctness and put to the canvas
with clear, smooth brushstrokes in bright and vibrant colors; here as well,
no toning down in splendor. Possessing Lombardy since the Spanish wars
of succession in 1714, the austrian empire followed keenly its neighbors
91 Birmingham, City art Gallery; another version is in the netherlands in the Collec-
tie instituut nederland; also rizzi, Luca Carlevarijs (Venice, 1980); exh. cat. (Padua 1994),
Luca Carlevarijs e la veduta veneziana del Settecento, ed. isabella reale (Milan, 1994).
92 See the essay on the history of the Venetian veduta aikema in exh. cat. (amster-
dam, 1990), Painters of Venice. The Story of the Venetian ‘veduta’, ed. Bernard aikema and
Boudewijn Bakker (the Hague, 1990), pp. 19–82.
93 W. G. Constable and J. G. Links, Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, 2nd
ed. (Oxford, 1989), no. 199; alessandro Brogi, Canaletto e la veduta (Florence, 2007); exh.
cat. (treviso, 2008–09), Canaletto. Venezia e I suoi splendori, ed. Giuseppe Pavanello and
alberto Craievich (Venice, 2008); exh. cat. (London/Washington, 2010–11), Venice. Canal
etto and his Rivals, ed. Charles Beddington (London/Washington, 2010). See also the latest
exh. cat (Paris 2012), CanalettoGuardi. Les deux maîtres de Venise, ed. anna Bozena Kow-
alczyck (Brussels, 2012).
94 Constable and Links, Canaletto, no. 355 and related 356.