Bernardo Bellotto

Venetian, 1722 - 1780

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Italian artist (1722–1780)

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Bernardo Bellotto, Italian 18th Century, Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, c. 1761, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.63

Nymphenburg Palace, Munich

Bernardo Bellotto, Italian 18th Century · c. 1761 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.63

Afternoon sunlight pours over a town crowded along the banks of a serene, glass-green river that runs through the middle of this horizontal painting. Several buildings cluster to our left on the riverbank close to us. A gateway there opens onto a bridge or walkway that extends back and behind the buildings. Tiny in scale, people stand, sit, or ride singly or in small groups on the dirt road that spans the lower edge of the composition. One man sits on a bench in a fenced-in, grassy enclosure at the lower right, and another man there wears monk’s robes and holds a basket. The land must dip down steeply between the dirt road and riverbank, for a few rooftops nestled in there have chimneys at road level. Houses, churches, and grand structures line the far riverbank and fill in the town beyond. Many of the buildings are white or tan with dark red roofs, though others are brown or gray. Trees and an open green space are tucked among the structures. A pale blue sky with wispy, petal-pink and light tan clouds fills the top half of the composition.
Bernardo Bellotto, Italian 18th Century, View of Munich, c. 1761, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.64

View of Munich

Bernardo Bellotto, Italian 18th Century · c. 1761 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.64

Bernardo Bellotto, A Capriccio of Palaces and a Loggia Facing a Classical Bridge, c. 1765, pen and black ink over graphite on two joined sheets of laid paper, William B. O'Neal Fund, 1999.125.1

A Capriccio of Palaces and a Loggia Facing a Classical Bridge

Bernardo Bellotto · c. 1765 · pen and black ink over graphite on two joined sheets of laid paper ·  Accession ID  1999.125.1

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Vue lateral des Galeries du Zwinger, a Dresde

Bernardo Bellotto · 1758 · etching ·  Accession ID  1952.8.63

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Vue interieure des Pavillons et des Galleries du Zwinger

Bernardo Bellotto · 1758 · etching ·  Accession ID  1952.8.64

In the distance, a fortress sits on a rocky plateau below a sky filled with lightly rolling white and gray clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line is low, about a quarter of the way up the composition, so the plateau and fortress loom high above the surrounding land. The fortress is made up two distinct sections, with a nearly windowless stronghold or massive city wall to the right and what looks like a row of six interconnected white rowhouses to the left. More rooflines peek over the stronghold. Tiny in scale, people work on scaffolding erected against a grassy cliff below the white section. Five men and women and a child and a few cows gather in the foreground, closer to us. People walk through the landscape in the background and along roads leading to the fortress. A hilly landscape recedes deep into the distance to our left below pale peach and lilac-purple clouds.
Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein, 1756-1758, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1993.8.1

The Fortress of Königstein

Bernardo Bellotto · 1756-1758 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1993.8.1

Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein: Courtyard with the Magdalenenburg, 1756-1758, oil on canvas, Donated by Lolo Sarnoff in memory of her grandfather, Louis Koch, 1996.64.1

The Fortress of Königstein: Courtyard with the Magdalenenburg

Bernardo Bellotto · 1756-1758 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1996.64.1

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Vue de la Grande Place du vieux Marche, du cote de la Rue du Chateau Royal

Bernardo Bellotto · 1752 · etching ·  Accession ID  1952.8.62

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Vue de la Grande Place du Vieux Marche, du cote de l'Eglise de la Ste. Croix et la Ru

Bernardo Bellotto · 1752 · etching ·  Accession ID  1952.8.61

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La Porte d'Italie, a Dresde

Bernardo Bellotto · 1750 · etching ·  Accession ID  1952.8.60

Bibliography

1972

  • Kozakiewicz, Stefan. Bernardo Bellotto. Translated by Mary Whittall. 2 vols. New York, 1972.

1986

  • Bernardo Bellotto: La Vedute de Dresda. Exh. cat. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 1986.

1990

  • Rizzi, Alberto. La Varsavia di Bellotto. Milan, 1990.

  • Bellotto: Verona e la città europee. Exh. cat. Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, 1990.

1996

  • De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 7-9.