Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Capriccio with Roman Ruins by Canaletto)

I didn’t know what a Capriccio was and I just assumed it was just some place in Italy (although it also sounds like a delicious dish from Prezzo), but it’s actually a collection of buildings or ruins just placed together for the purpose of a artwork. Apparently this was a popular art form during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although I’m surprised people didn’t want something a little more realistic.

Canaletto painted this in 1740, pretty much in the middle of his career, and it seems that there is a problem throughout many of his works in establishing what was real and what was artificial. This is the only work of this artist that the Kunsthalle hold, other than a series of 31 etchings which I don’t think are on display.

I think I prefer his paintings of Venice, Rome and London…..