The perspectively exact reproduction of a city view, the so-called veduta, enjoyed immense popularity first in Italy, but soon throughout Europe since the 17th century. The aim was always to bring the architectural beauty of a city and the compositional brilliance of a painting constructed with precise central perspective to the canvas. Despite the correctness of the reproduction and the use of a camera obscura, it was of course never impossible to eliminate blemishes, because the aim was to present ideal views of a real existing city.
The great master of veduta painting was Antonio Joli, who was born in Modena in 1700 and is unjustly little known today. As a young man he went to Rome, where he studied under the renowned artist Giovanni Paolo Pannini and then worked in the workshops of the Galli da Bibbiena family of painters. Joli soon made a name for himself with his aesthetically finely worked out city views, often paired with depictions of parades and processions. The artist travelled widely in Europe, at times he lived and worked in Venice, Dresden, Madrid, London and Naples, where he created fascinating panoramas of the squares, rivers, harbours, churches and buildings of these metropolises. There are outstanding views to be discovered, for example of the Thames in London with a view of Westminster Abbey, a wide view over the Bay of Naples with a royal procession, a Neapolitan scene at carnival time or a brilliant view of the ancient Forum Romanum with the amphitheatre in the background.
Antonio Joli understood a city as a stage, accordingly he was also a demanded stage and theater painter. Thus he took part in opera productions of renowned Venetian theatres of the Grimani family, among others in the legendary Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo. Another important field of Joli's activity was the capriccios, i.e. imaginative architectural close-ups with a great preference for ancient ruins. Thus he created masterly representations of the temples of Paestum, of ancient thermal baths or of overgrown columns, small temples and relief fragments that cannot be located today. Less well known are his history paintings or biblical scenes such as the "destruction of the temple of Dagan", a god of the Philistines. Here and in other paintings, the accuracy of the reproduction of architectural details is paired with a great sensitivity for atmospheric moods, romantic vistas and an exuberant narrative joy. Antonio Joli was co-founder of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, which is still famous today, before he went to the Bourbon court in Naples. There he created iconic views of the city with royal processions through the streets and the smoking Vesuvius in the background against a panorama of the Mediterranean. Antonio Joli died in Bella Napoli in 1777.
The perspectively exact reproduction of a city view, the so-called veduta, enjoyed immense popularity first in Italy, but soon throughout Europe since the 17th century. The aim was always to bring the architectural beauty of a city and the compositional brilliance of a painting constructed with precise central perspective to the canvas. Despite the correctness of the reproduction and the use of a camera obscura, it was of course never impossible to eliminate blemishes, because the aim was to present ideal views of a real existing city.
The great master of veduta painting was Antonio Joli, who was born in Modena in 1700 and is unjustly little known today. As a young man he went to Rome, where he studied under the renowned artist Giovanni Paolo Pannini and then worked in the workshops of the Galli da Bibbiena family of painters. Joli soon made a name for himself with his aesthetically finely worked out city views, often paired with depictions of parades and processions. The artist travelled widely in Europe, at times he lived and worked in Venice, Dresden, Madrid, London and Naples, where he created fascinating panoramas of the squares, rivers, harbours, churches and buildings of these metropolises. There are outstanding views to be discovered, for example of the Thames in London with a view of Westminster Abbey, a wide view over the Bay of Naples with a royal procession, a Neapolitan scene at carnival time or a brilliant view of the ancient Forum Romanum with the amphitheatre in the background.
Antonio Joli understood a city as a stage, accordingly he was also a demanded stage and theater painter. Thus he took part in opera productions of renowned Venetian theatres of the Grimani family, among others in the legendary Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo. Another important field of Joli's activity was the capriccios, i.e. imaginative architectural close-ups with a great preference for ancient ruins. Thus he created masterly representations of the temples of Paestum, of ancient thermal baths or of overgrown columns, small temples and relief fragments that cannot be located today. Less well known are his history paintings or biblical scenes such as the "destruction of the temple of Dagan", a god of the Philistines. Here and in other paintings, the accuracy of the reproduction of architectural details is paired with a great sensitivity for atmospheric moods, romantic vistas and an exuberant narrative joy. Antonio Joli was co-founder of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, which is still famous today, before he went to the Bourbon court in Naples. There he created iconic views of the city with royal processions through the streets and the smoking Vesuvius in the background against a panorama of the Mediterranean. Antonio Joli died in Bella Napoli in 1777.
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