By Peter Björn Kerber
Celebrated view painters Canaletto, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Francesco Guardi, Bernardo Bellotto, Hubert Robert, and Luca Carlevarijs are best known for their evocative canvases depicting the canals of Venice, the ruins of Rome, and other topographical marvels. Many of their most splendid paintings, however, also record important historical events. Often commissioned by or for rulers, princes, and ambassadors as records of significant occasions, these paintings motivated the greatest artists of the era to produce their most exceptional work.
This richly illustrated volume provides the first-ever comprehensive study of this type of view painting. It is the catalogue for the exhibition Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe at the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 25–May 20, 2018.242 pages
Published 2017