For the rest of the world, Bernardo Francesco Paolo Ernesto Bellotto is a portrait painter of cities. The creator of iconic images of Dresden, Vienna, Munich and Turin. One of the painters who gave us the image of Venice in our mind’s eye, even if we have never seen it with our own eyes. For Poles, he is more than a talented cityscape painter.

When opening the great exhibition of Bellotto’s works, the director of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wojciech Fałkowski, emphasized that they had blended into our culture so much that we consider the artist our fellow countryman.

The vision of the city as a stage in the theater of life captured the imagination of a legion of artists on the Vistula. Meanwhile, the court painter of King ‘Staś’ (Stanisław August Poniatowski) was a typical 18th-century cosmopolitan. He lived in Saxony – with breaks – for 20 years, but he had problems putting even a sentence together in German. He didn’t learn Polish either. He didn’t have to. The language of the elite, in whose circles the artist-for-hire ran, was French.

The jubilee exhibition (Bellotto was born 300 years ago) was hosted in Dresden from May to August. Warsaw’s is more extensive, it contains 150 exhibit items, including very rarely presented graphics and sketches. This is not the first time that Venetian art connects nations. In 1963-66 his paintings traveled along the Dresden-Warsaw-Krakow-Vienna-Essen route. It was the first German-Polish cultural collaboration of this kind since the war. It turned out to be a harbinger, heralding West Germany's “new eastern policy.”

In His Uncle’s Shadow

Bernardo was admitted to the painters’ guild at the age of 16. He certainly had talent, but his mother’s brother had paved the way for his fame. Antonio Canale (known as Canaletto) treated his nephew like a son, taking him into his studio. He also apprenticed at one time. The 18th century was a golden age of theater and opera, and talented set designers had their hands full. Antonio, however, had greater ambitions: he became a painter. His specialty was cityscapes. He turned this secondary genre into an unquestionable work of art. It was said that on his canvases “the sun really shines.”

Financially, it was a bull’s eye. When the Age of Lights came, the townscape became a coveted memento of the European Grand Tour. The Republic of San Marco (Venetian Republic), the Rococo equivalent of Broadway and Las Vegas, drew wealthy idlers from all over Europe to it like a magnet. Paintings of the Canal were especially liked by the British. He barely kept up with orders, he painted entire Venetian cycles for export, which inspired several generations of landscape painters.

The work of cityscape painters was facilitated by the camera obscura – a wooden box, the ancestor of the pinhole camera, but the skill of drawing was even more important. That is why Bernardo never parted with his sketchbook. He faithfully imitated his uncle’s style, even experts sometimes have a serious problem with distinguishing what Antonio painted from what the young Bellotto did. When they grew tired of the lagoon, they went to the Venetian countryside. The harvest of artistic holidays were capricci, that is, architectural fantasies. Images of imagined, ancient buildings were also somewhat popular then.

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     The childless uncle saw Bernardo as his successor. He allowed him to use his nickname as a commercial brand. In Poland, this pseudonym stuck to his nephew so much that the inclusion of the name “Bellotto” in the title of the exhibition should be considered a courageous act. We have a conservative audience, forcing people to think that the real Canaletto’s name was Antonio and he never entertained on the Vistula, seems like a mission doomed to failure.

The Dresden Stop

Did the apprentice surpass the master? Opinions are divided. Artur Badach, the curator of the exhibition, claims that Bellotto’s later works are easy to distinguish from his uncle’s paintings. He used a brighter color palette, he was interested not only in the city landscape, but also in nature. His canvases have more depth, light contrasts, details and, above all, more life and people, which gives them the characteristics of a genre painting.

The cutting of the artistic umbilical cord was facilitated by the relatives’ separation. Antonio left for London, Bernardo honed his talent in Italy.

In 1745, he got his first order from a crowned head. For the King of Sardinia and the Duke of Savoy, he painted views of his capital – Turin. When Bellotto was 25 years old, he succumbed to the temptation of a change of scenery. He moved to Saxony. He joined a large Italian colony of musicians, actors, writers, architects, sculptors and painters, maintained by Frederick Augustus II of the House of Wettin. He also reigned in Poland, where he was labeled an inept ruler. Meanwhile, Augustus III was a great patron and fan of the opera. He amassed one of the best art collections in Europe.

As a court painter, Bellotto received a sumptuous salary of 1750 thalers annually. He had enough to support his growing family (he produced a son and five daughters). He did not disappoint his employer: he preserved the short-lived splendor of “Florence on the Elbe” with a series of cityscapes, exhibited in royal residences. He would have stayed in Dresden for the rest of his life, but the Seven Years’ War ravaged Saxony and emptied Augustus’s coffers.

The artist’s house burned down in a fire caused by the Prussian bombing. In one of the libraries of Vilnius, a letter has been preserved in which Bellotto lists his losses. He took the opportunity, however, to portray contemporary ruins instead of the ancient ones. Paradoxically, the two paintings depicting the demolished districts of Dresden are more impressive than the pampered cityscapes documenting the pre-war idyll on the Elbe.

Which way to St. Petersburg?

As a painter, Bellotto came out of his uncle’s shadow, but the death of his patron put his future in question. In the eyes of the young generation of Wettins, the painter was harmed by the patronage of the omnipotent and hated Count Brühl (it is worth noting that the Venetian only began demanding the fee for the paintings intended for the minister from his heirs). The state’s finances were in a dire condition. King Augustus’s favorite had his position terminated by the court. As a consolation, he was offered the position of lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts with a salary of 600 thalers a year. He had to see it as a slap to the face.

Since permanently attaching himself to Vienna and Munich didn’t work out, Bellotto took a leave of absence from the Academy to follow in the footsteps of his colleagues on a long journey to the East. Russia fascinated foreigners, especially the ambitious and (in their own opinion) underestimated, in their homeland. In Catherine II’s hierarchy of interests, art was in third place at best (after sex and politics), but our hero found out that the Tsarina liked and collected cityscapes. He was no longer a youngster, so he planned a stay in Warsaw. Here he met King Poniatowski and, as an experienced courtier, understood that it would be easier to find a safe haven on the Vistula than on the Neva.

The gentlemen found a common language, as they were both sybarites and nouveau riche. Poniatowski’s father, a wheeler-dealer and a troublemaker, married into the princely Czartoryski family. Bellotto, like many artists, had a lowly-origins complex. He added the noble “de” to his last name. He adorned a capriccio, today in the collection of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, with a self-portrait of him dressed as a Venetian patrician. She stretches out his hand in a commanding gesture, with two servants at his back.

Stanisław August was surely bursting with pride. This one and only time he triumphed over his former lover, he managed to keep Canaletto’s nephew in Warsaw. Ultimately, he was convinced by the illusionist paintings that the Venetian designed for the Ujazdowski Castle. The monarch planned to live in it, with this moment in mind, he also ordered a series of views of Rome from Bellotto. After a few years and having spent 5 million zlotys on the renovation, Poniatowski changed his mind, he designated the castle for use as a barracks.

Warsaw Summer Without End

One hundred Hungarian ducats a month “with a comfortable apartment, fuel and other amenities” was enough to satisfy the arrival from Dresden. He repaid the generous monarch by painting two versions of The Election of Stanisław August.

It is the only openly propagandistic work in the oeuvre of the Venetian, suggesting – in spite of the facts – that the election of the candidate designated by the Tsarina was a national holiday of unity. Painted 12 and 14 years after the fact, it must have amazed people with a good memory. In the foreground, Bellotto placed Poniatowski’s current supporters and favorites, who in September 1764 were somewhere else, beginning with his own family. The historical image also lacked space for the Russian troops who guarded the safety of the corrupt or intimidated electors.

However, the cityscapes turned out to be the posthumous pass to fame for the painter in Poland. They cost him a lot of trouble, he complained that he had to labor over one canvas for an entire year. Like an Italian, he exaggerated, but finessing every detail was certainly a time-consuming task. Since the Venetian times, Bellotto had slightly revised his style, but architecture was still the most important thing. It’s what he reserved the sun’s rays for, often placing people in the shade. The effect was what mattered most, and this one was captivating.

Under the Master’s Brush, Even the Plebeian Powiśle Gained Dignity.

Almost all commentators emphasize the documentary value of this art, even comparing it to photography. Well, realism has many faces. Canaletto’s nephew was a keen observer, perfectly using perspective and – as befits a Venetian – color. His paintings, however, should not be treated as 100% reliable records. Deep down, in line with the family tradition, he was still a set decorator. He aspired to an ideal which, as we know, does not exist in nature. He unscrupulously modified the landscape, moved buildings and changed their dimensions.

It is striking that even the most distant objects on Bellotto’s canvases are clearly visible. The colors don’t lose their intensity either, which is against the laws of optics. The master forgot to reduce the intensity of light and shadow depending on the location. In his Warsaw it is eternal summer, the sun is always shining. It is funny that the Venetian’s cityscapes were considered the crowning proof of the heyday of the capital in the “Stanisław age.” Meanwhile, what we are actually watching is the Saxon metropolis.

A Way to Immortality

The crown was teetering on Poniatowski’s head for a long time, the nobility wanted to dethrone him. It was only after the Russians quelled the Bar Confederation and they made the first partition, that the investments that were to change the face of the capital began. The painter did not live to see them completed. He died suddenly, in November 1780. The king still paid his wages to his widow and two unmarried daughters for a long time. The catalog of Stanisław August’s collection shows that he possessed 60 of Canaletto’s nephew’s paintings. Specialists on Warsaw’s history regret that the master did not deign to immortalize the Saski Palace, the Old Town, Marywil, Leszno, or Nowy Świat Street, with his brush, which then looked completely different than after the 20th-century “reconstruction.” However, he left us with something much more valuable in his legacy – the legend of the flourishing capital of a failing state.

Foreigners visiting Warsaw described it as a city of contrasts, with magnificent palaces and churches neighbored with hovels, or shabby cottages. Bellotto’s genius fixed his gaze onto the former.

God was kind to him. He spared him from witnessing the final discrediting of his patron, the destruction of the Republic of Poland, the reconstruction of Warsaw in the classicist spirit and the fall of the republic of San Marco, the oldest country in Europe. His tomb in the Capuchin Church in Warsaw has not survived. Canaletto’s nephew, however, became timeless to a degree inaccessible to his competitors. His cityscapes served as a model for the rebuilders of the historical districts of Dresden and Warsaw. In the end, the reality adjusted to the artist’s fantasies.

– Wiesław Chełminiak

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and journalists

–Translated by Nicholas Siekierski

The exhibition “Bernardo Bellotto: On the 300th Anniversary of the Painter’s Birthday” at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, is open until January 8, 2023