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The Arts Intel Report

Enchantingly Real: Bernardo Bellotto at the Court of Saxony

Bernardo Bellotto, Dresden vom rechten Elbufer unterhalb der Augustusbrücke, 1748.

May 26 – Aug 28, 2022
Theaterplatz 1, 01067 Dresden, Germany

You may know him by his uncle’s name, Canaletto, which he used to sign his first royal commissions, but it’s time this 18th-century vedutisti went by his own name: Bernardo Bellotto. Born in Venice in 1721, Bellotto rose to international fame for his cityscapes and worked all over Europe. By the end of his career, he’d painted for swaths of aristocracy, crowned heads that included the King of Sardinia, Poland’s Augustus III, and the Empress Maria Theresa of Vienna. His highly technical paintings and etchings rival any landscape you may have taken on your iPhone 13 Pro. He really was “Oh. So. Pro.” —Thalia Bonas

Photo: Estel/Klut/Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden