Gaspare Vanvitelli and the origins of view painting

This is the first exhibition dedicated to Gaspare Vanvitelli, Rome’s greatest view painter. Thanks to the long and patient efforts of its organisers, tourists and Venetians can now admire the work of ‘the painter of modern Rome’, as Lanzi defined him in the 18th century.
The exhibition has been made possible by the joint effort of the Chiostro del Bramante International Culture Centre and the Venetian Civic Museums, in collaboration with the Giorgio Cini Foundation. It reinforces a fruitful tradition of reciprocal exchange and cooperation between leading centres of Italian culture. Before travelling to the Correr Museum in Venice, the exhibition was shown at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome, an elongated space much loved by Romans for its charm and intelligent programming focused on Italian cultural phenomena of international relevance, such as ‘Art Nouveau in Italy’.
The exhibition at hand is a retrospective on Vanvitelli, who immortalised the Rome that, between the 17th and 18th centuries, was the destination of foreign travellers and artists from all over Europe, Vanvitelli (born Gaspar van Wittel) among them. He arrived in Venice shortly before his 20th birthday and chose to remain in Italy for the rest of his life, capturing images we still admire of the Eternal City. The Venetian venue deals with the controversial and critically relevant issue of Vanvitelli’s role in the birth of the cityscape. Thanks to important loans and the rich collections at the Correr Museum, which fill in for some of Vanvitelli’s paintings, it has been possible to make comparisons and explore the relationship between his works and those of key figures of this art-historical moment, such as Joseph Heintz and the young Luca Carlevarijs. The overall project is a fascinating journey, an example of profitable synergies, and a chance to fully appreciate and express the value of these works.
The works of Vanvitelli, commonly considered the percursor to 18th-century view painting, provide the opportunity for an exchange between the two major capitals of Italian art, testifying to the great and universal value of his painting. A monographic exhibition on Vanvitelli had never been possible before because the works, the majority of which are on loan, had always been jealously harboured in illustrious private collections where they had often been since their completion. Today a multitude of exceptional works never seen before allows spectators to trace the artist’s career between the 17th and 18th centuries, encapsulating the magic of the now extinct or radically changed landscapes and urban views that greatly inspired and influenced European culture and society through the eyes of the first travellers of the ‘Gran Tour’. Rome and its surrounding areas, as well as Lombardy, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Naples and Messina map an imaginary itinerary that takes us back to our roots and to a reality that inspired great artists to arouse the enthusiasm of numerous peoples and cultures. It is to this great painter and to his works that, today, we owe the opportunity to visit an ideal country, different from the one we know, in which each of us can find a piece of himself. The complete itinerary unfolds before our eyes offering us a chance to look at extraordinary works with that same amazed astoundment Vanvitelli intended to incite through his original portrayal of new perspectives and original points of view.

Venice, Museo Correr
1 March – 18 May 2003

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