Bernardo Bellotto

Bernardo Bellotto (c. 1721/1722 or 30 January 1721 – 17 November 1780), was an Italian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching, famous for his vedute of European cities – Dresden, Vienna, Turin, and Warsaw. He was the student and nephew of the renowned Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself "Bernardo Canaletto". In Germany and Poland, Bellotto called himself by his uncle's name, Canaletto. This caused some confusion; Bellotto's work, though, is more somber in color than Canaletto's, and his depiction of clouds and shadows brings him closer to Dutch painting. Bellotto's style was characterized by elaborate representation of architectural and natural vistas, and by the specific quality of each place's lighting. It is plausible that Bellotto, and other Venetian masters of vedute, may have used the camera obscura to achieve superior precision of urban views.