Canaletto
Italian, 1697-1768
Landscape with Tower and Two Ruined Pillars, from Vedute
INV-1597
Canaletto
Italian, 1697-17681735/44
Landscape with Tower and Two Ruined Pillars, from Vedute
Canaletto Italian, 1697-1768 →etchingprint
Date
1735/44
Medium
Etching in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 14.2 × 20.9 cm (5 5/8 × 8 1/4 in.); Plate: 14.6 × 21.2 cm (5 3/4 × 8 3/8 in.); Sheet: 43.1 × 58.7 cm (17 × 23 1/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Joseph Brooks Fair Collection
Curiously, Canaletto never printed either of these energetic capriccio landscapes (depictions of fantastic architecture or ruins) individually. Instead, they exist only as a pair on a single sheet (for the left half, see 1922.1381.13). While both images include fictional antiquarian architectural elements, it is not known why the artist combined them. Perhaps it was their mirrored compositions: when placed side by side, both images slope inward toward a church that straddles the margin between the plates and connects the two scenes.
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