Classroom use of the art print.

Classroom use of the art print. Canaletto (Venetian; 1697-1768), The Grand Canal Grand Canal,Chinese Da Yunhe [large transit river], longest in the world, extending c.1,000 mi (1,600 km) from Beijing to Hangzhou, E China, and forming an important north-south waterway on the North China Plain. The canal was started in the 6th cent. B.C. near the RialtoBridge Rialto Bridge(rēäl`tō), Ital. Ponte di Rialto, bridge of Venice, NE Italy, over the Grand Canal, connecting Rialto and San Marco islands. Built between 1588 and 1591, it consists of a single marble arch and has arcades lined with shops. , Venice, c. 1730. Oil on canvas; 19 9/16" x 28 3/4".The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston For other places with the same name, see Museum of Fine Arts. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), located in Houston, is the largest art museum in the State of Texas and the largest art museum in the USA east of Los Angeles, south of Chicago, ; The Robert Lee Robert Lee is the name of several people and could refer to: Robert Lee (midwifery), Regius Professor of Midwifery, University of Glasgow Robert E. Lee, Confederate general Robert Edwin Lee, playwright Robert Lee (mayor), mayor of Edmonton, Alberta Blaffer MemorialCollection, gift of Sarah Campbell Blaffer THINGS TO LEARN * "View painting" is a form of tourist art, although itis not as common today as it was in the 18th century. Earlier viewpictures were usually of ancient ruins or used as backgrounds topictures of important people and ceremonies. View paintings were often large, so as much as possible of theplace could be shown. This kind of art was an important source of moneyfor cities like Venice--which was no longer rich--together withrestaurants, hotels and theaters. It is much the same today, althoughnow, people usually buy photographs rather than paintings. * Canaletto also painted another kind of view picture called a"capriccio ca��pric��cio?n. pl. ca��pric��cios1. Music An instrumental work with an improvisatory style and a free form.2. A prank; a caper.3. A whim. ." While a view painting shows an actual scene, acapriccio A capriccio (Italian: "following one's fancy") is a tempo marking indicating a free and capricious approach to the tempo (and possibly the style) of the piece. This marking will usually modify another, such as lento a capriccio consists of well-known buildings and monuments in a city wherethe artist has arranged them to satisfy his imagination. In that way, hewas able to include many more objects of special interest than could beseen in a single view. * Overland travel in the 18th century was very slow anduncomfortable, so most people did not travel very much. It could also bequite dangerous from hold-ups by bandits. Each of Canaletto's threetrips to England took about three weeks in each direction over badroads. Even by sea, the journey took at least three weeks and then onlyif the wind blew. In contrast, people today can drive from Venice to London in abouttwo days and fly in only a few hours. * Unlike most cities in the world, Venice is very much the same asit was 300 years ago in Canaletto's time--including this view. Infact, the city has not changed much in over 500 years. Some buildingshave been destroyed to make way for places like railway stations The following is a list of railway stations (also called train stations) that is indexed by country. :Further information: List of IATA-indexed train stations AfricaMoroccoCasablanca andhotels, and some tall towers have collapsed. But the accuracy ofCanaletto's paintings has been checked against present-dayphotographs. * Much of Canaletto's success came about through people whowere art dealers and bought and sold artworks for anyone who wasinterested in them. He also worked with agents who worked for individualwealthy buyers. Students may find out about present-day art dealers by readingbooks about the work they do. Local art dealers may also be willing tovisit a school to explain their job and show examples of artworks theyhave for sale. It may even be possible for students to visit adealer's gallery. Students may also search the Internet for Websites developed by galleries to help sell their works. * Canaletto always developed his paintings from sketches he made onthe spot. He understood perspective very well, although he often mixedviews together to make pictures more interesting even though theperspective was no longer accurate. He also painted scenes he could notsee by raising the eye level to the height of a ship's masthead mast��head?n.1. Nautical The top of a mast.2. The listing in a newspaper or periodical of information about its staff, operation, and circulation.3. toget a more interesting view. * Canaletto was so good at perspective drawing that some peoplebelieved that he copied what he could see in an instrument called a"camera obscura." A camera obscura is like a simple camerawith a mirror in it but no film (photographic film had not yet beeninvented). In fact, there is no evidence that he did use a camera obscura, soall his scenes were hand drawn using his knowledge of perspective. * Canaletto's pictures are much like stage sets with peoplegoing about their daily business while surrounded by the beauties ofVenice. The people are dressed in the fashion of the 18th century, whichmay interest students looking at this painting. The presence of thepeople may also give students ideas about how to make their own picturesmore complete with the addition of people. * The artist was not very interested in the water in the canals ofVenice so he usually showed it with evenly painted ripples on anotherwise glassy surface. In fact, the water was often quite rough fromthe passage of boats and the force of the wind. THINGS TO DO * Students may go sketching and also take cameras--better ifPolaroid" or digital. On their return to the classroom they are todraw and paint large accurate pictures of an interesting scene they sawbased on the photograph and their own sketches. Alternatively, they cansketch or photograph several important objects in town and then maketheir own capriccios. * Choose part or all of an artwork and draw a pencil grid ofsquares on top of it. Then draw a grid of larger squares on a piece ofblank paper. The next step is to draw in every blank square what can beseen in the squares drawn on the reproduction. Add details on the largerdrawing to complete it. This method of enlargement has been used forhundreds of years when artists needed to transfer sketch designs tolarge walls for painting murals. * All landscapes have eye levels that show where the artist wasstanding of sitting when he painted the picture. Another way of namingthe eye level is to call it the "horizon line." In order to find the eye level in this painting, have a studenttape a sheet of clear acetate of tracing paper over the picturereproduced here. Using marker to draw on acetate and pencil on tracingpaper, draw over some of the lines of the buildings that stretch awayfrom the viewer. Lengthen length��en?tr. & intr.v. length��ened, length��en��ing, length��ensTo make or become longer.lengthen��er n. these lines to where the upper and lower linescross each other (converge). The point where these lines cross is theeye level. Do this several times to different sets of receding lines in thepicture and then draw a line connecting all the places where the linesconverge. This will show the full eye level for that picture. Thisexercise can be repeated by drawing on a photograph of a street. * Like Canaletto, students can make drawings of people in differentpositions and dressed in different ways. These figure drawings can laterbe included in their own paintings, perhaps to tell a story. This isusually a better way of including people than putting them into apicture without drawing them first. BUILDING A PICTURE FILE This painting may be used to illustrate various art-teaching needs.Potentially useful picture-file categories include: "ItalianPainters Famous Italian painters (in alphabetical order): Francesco Albani, (1578-1660) Mariotto Albertinelli, (1474-1515) Fra Angelico, (1387-1445) Fra Bartolomeo, (1472-1517) Gentile Bellini, (c.1429-1507) Raffaello Di Vecchio (c.xxx) Giovanni Bellini, (c. : Antonio Canaletto"; "Cities: Venice";"Perspective"; and "Waterways." For ideas about collecting and retrieving pictures to help inteaching art and other subjects, readers are invited to write to: GuyHubbard c/o Arts & Activities, 12345 World Trade Drive, San Diego San Diego(săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. ,CA 92128. E-mail: hubbard@indiana.edu.