Capricci become Etchings

Small sets of images with Canaletto's established name

When finally Canaletto was an established name in art, some of his paintings & drawings were transformed in Etchings.

Joseph Wagner (1706-80) - etcher & engraver - was the main name behind this proposal of Canaletto's artistic images for the tourist which started again to visit Venice.

Born in Thalendorf in Gestratz, on Lake Constance, in 1706, studied painting in Venice under Jacopo Amigoni an with his master moved to Rome and Bologna, and in 1733 to England.

Later on he moved by himself to Paris and again to England, until he returned to Venice, where he opened a school and made a good business as a print seller.

 

 

The engraver Fabio Berardi (1728-88) was already active in Tuscany, went to Venice when young, and trained under Joseph Wagner with whom he printed some Capricci drawings into etchings.

His favorite way of working was the associated etching and burin, and this tecnique allowed him to strongly approach the great Venetian painters' style.

Berardi didn't make many etchings from Canaletto's works, but some of them were among the first he produced, when he was only 14 years old.