19 BERNARDO BELLOTTO Bellotto's precocious talent was fostered in the studio of his uncle, Canaletto. By the Italian, 1721-1780 mid-1730s the teenager was collaborating with Canaletto on the idealized views of View of the Grand Canal: Venice that had won the older artist fame. One of Bellotto's earliest masterpieces, Santa Maria della Salute and the View of the Grand Canal demonstrates the sweeping monumentality, luminous the Dogana from Campo Santa Maria Zobenigo, circa 1740 contrasts, and the alternatively brushy and liquid handling of paint characteristic of Bellotto's mature work. Richly observed in anecdote as well as physical detail, this Oil on canvas 135.5 x 232.5 cm (53¼ x 91¼ in.) urban view is enlivened by its human element, capturing simultaneously the aging 91.PA.73 grandeur of the city and the momentary quality of everyday life wirhin it. Bellotto's view of the Grand Canal presents a cross-section of Venetian society going about their business on a sunny morning. In the left foreground, the facade of the Palazzo Pisani-Gritti presents an elegant backdrop to the mundane activities of the campo bank. The exuberant Baroque design of Baldassare Longhena's Church of Santa Maria della Salute dominates the opposite bank of the canal. To the right, the sun-bathed facade of the Abbey of San Gregorio rises above a shadowy row of houses. On the far side of the Salute stand the Seminario Patriarcale and the Dogana. The mouth of the canal opens onto a distant vista with the Riva degli Schiavoni visible beyond the bustling commerce of the bacino di San Marco. Over the dogana wall can be seen the pale campanile and dome of San Giorgio Maggiore. The View of the Grand Canal is the primary version of a composition repeated in at least fourteen versions by Canaletto's studio. Its attribution to Bellotto is supported by a pen-and-ink drawing by him in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, that follows the Getty composition closely. The Cleveland Museum of Art's View of the Piazza San Marco Looking Southwest, long considered the pendant of the Getty Grand Canal, has recently been reattributed to Bellotto. DJ 38 ITALIAN SCHOOL