The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola (detail), about 1738, Canaletto. Oil on canvas. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Serene and Eternal: Turner and Canaletto in Venice and Rome
GETTY CENTER
Harold M. Williams Auditorium
“Venice was surely built to be painted by Canaletto and Turner,” wrote the Art Union of London in 1842. Peter Björn Kerber, co-curator of the exhibition J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free, discusses how these two painters took radically different approaches to portraying the splendors of Venice as well as the monuments of ancient and modern Rome: while Canaletto delighted in details of architecture and everyday life, Turner privileged atmosphere over accuracy.
