Bernardo Canal (1664-1744)

Inspiration, Father, Mentor and Imitator

Bernardo Canal was the father of Giovanni Antonio Canal (known as Canaletto).

In the year 1695 he married Artemisia Barbieri (ca.1670-?), about whom very little is known.

In 1717, he appeared on the list of members of the Venetian Painters' Guild, and he is thus recognized as a member of the College of Painters. The same organization awarded him with the title of "Prior" on December 28, 1739, this definitely puts him in some prestige condition.

His name on the Venetian Painters' Guild continues in the years 1737-1743.

In 1717-19 Bernardo and his sons Cristoforo (1696-1722) and Antonio move to Rome, to create the sceneries of plays by Antonio Vivaldi (L’Arsilda regina di Ponto and l’Incoronazione di Dario), Fortunato Chelleri (Penelope la Casta) at the Teatro Sant’Angelo, Giovanni Porta (L’Argippo), Giuseppe Maria Orlandini (Antigona) and Carlo Pollarolo (Farnace) at the Teatro Tron di San Cassiano

Again in 1719-20 Bernardo Canal and Antonio go to Rome to create the scenes of two plays by Alessandro Scarlatti (Tito Sempronio Gracco and Turno Aricino). This is the moment in which Canaletto decides he's finished with theater work.

And his decision, together with the relatively fast success Canaletto had in his profession, would make father Bernardo change his activity too: no more theater, but landscape (and Capricci, but less successful) paintings.

Bernardo's style is fairly different from his son's Antonio, but not that much - in the end - as view painting becomes "trendy", is well received by the Art Dealers, and makes good income.