Bernardo Bellotto

Bernardo Bellotto ( urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching, famous for his vedute of European cities – Dresden, Vienna, Turin, and Warsaw.

He was the student and nephew of the renowned Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself "Bernardo Canaletto".

Bellotto's style was characterized by elaborate representation of architectural and natural vistas, and by the specific quality of each place's lighting. It is plausible that Bellotto, and other Venetian masters of vedute, may have used the camera obscura to achieve superior precision of urban views. Bellotto was born in Venice, the son of Lorenzo Antonio Bellotto and Fiorenza Canal, sister of the famous Canaletto, and studied in his uncle's workshop. At the end of 1761, Bellotto returned to Dresden.

When King Augustus III of Poland, also Elector of Saxony, who usually lived in Dresden, died in 1763, Bellotto's work became less important in Dresden. As a consequence, he left Dresden to seek employment in Saint Petersburg at the court of Catherine the Great. On his way to Saint Petersburg, however, Bellotto accepted an invitation in 1764 from Poland's newly elected King Stanisław August Poniatowski to become his court painter in Warsaw from 1768. The Fortress of Königstein: Courtyard with the Magdalenenburg Manchester Art Gallery The Fortress of Königstein from the North National Gallery, London 'The Fortress of Königstein from the South-West (private collection, Earl of Derby) The Fortress of Königstein (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

Warsaw Church of the Sisters of St Bernard and the Column of Sigismund III in Warsaw from the descent towards the Vistula (1768–1770) Royal Castle, Warsaw View of Warsaw with the Vistula from the Praga Suburb (1770) Royal Castle, Warsaw View of the Wilanów Meadows (1775) Royal Castle, Warsaw Miodowa Street (1777) Royal Castle, Warsaw Krasinski Square in Warsaw (1778) Royal Castle, Warsaw Iron-Gate Square in Warsaw (1779) Royal Castle, Warsaw The Carmelite Church in Warsaw (1780) Royal Castle, Warsaw

Other Das kaiserliche Lustschloß Schönbrunn, Ehrenhofseite (1759–1760) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Vienna seen from the Belvedere (1758–1761) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Capriccio with Christ Driving the Moneylenders from the Temple (1765–1766) National Museum, Warsaw Capriccio with a River and Bridge (c. 1745) Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid