Canaletto and the vedutistas.

In the early eighteenth century, it was usual among the wealthy British businessmen to make a trip to the major Italian cities, including Venice; a trip known as the "Grand Tour". Desiring to return to the rainy north with a decent souvenir of the Venetian light and architecture, the travelers acquired views of the “City of the Channels” painted by local artists, thus promoting the formation of a new genre painting, the Vedute. Heirs of the aforementioned Venetian painters from the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento (Carpaccio, Bellini), vedute painters did not need "excuses" (such royal or papal receptions) to include the city in his paintings: Venice –its light, its architecture- is the sole and only star of the composition.

The exhibition "Canaletto and his rivals", organized by the National Gallery of London in 2010, clearly shows the hierarchy between these painters: the famous Canaletto is properly at the pinnacle, an artist able to "make the sun shine in his paintings”, as a 18th century art dealer said to one of his customers. Canaletto's popularity among the British businessmen took him to England, where he increased his fame and fortune painting landscapes in London. In addition to Canaletto, we should mention two important predecessors, Gaspar van Wittel (Dutch living in Italy) and Luca Carlevarijs, as well as the two most talented followers of Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi.

Cityscape in Asia.

There is not a continuous tradition of cityscape painting in Chinese Art, more focused on the natural landscape, prior to the 20th century. There are, of course, very remarkable exceptions: the stunning “Along the River during the Qingming Festival” (1085-1145), by Zhang Zeduan, shows with a level of detail difficult to conceive for such an ancient work, the daily life in a small river village in China. Other later artists also included view of small cities - always surrounded by stunning natural landscapes- in their paintings, as can be seen in "The new City of Feng" (c.1760) by Ding Guanpeng. Cityscapes are, however, a fundamental part of contemporary Chinese art.

In Japan, the turning point to cityscape painting is represented by the Edo Period (1603-1868), when urban culture was born, reflected in the paintings by artists such asUtagawa Hiroshige, also known as Ando Hiroshige, author of the nice "Night view of Saruwakacho" (1856), and other lesser known painters like Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

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