18th century landscape painters in contemporary views
Collages of London with Canaletto and Google Street View
Google Street View e l'opera Westminster Abbey with a Procession of Knights of the Bath, Canaletto, 1749
E.B.
27/02/2014
The city of London in 1749 looked quite different from today. Sometimes it is hard to imagine how its streets and squares were at that time, and it is even more difficult to reshape them in the contemporary urban panorama.
Thanks to a singular initiative of a blogger on Imgur it will be easier to accomplish this from now on: since a few days the project of a certain shystone has become a big hit on the web. He humorously superimposed the works from renowned landscape painters on present-days Google Street View screenshots.
Among the views of Covent Garden (1737) by Brisith artist Balthazar Nebot, the Trafalgar Square rendering by William Logsdail (1888) and the Blackman Street painted by John Atkinson Grimshaw (1885), five vedutas created by Giovanni Antonio Canal, also known as Canaletto, between 1740s and 1750s make their appearance.
Anyone can admire from the web the Westminster Abbey without the well-known Big Ben in the background, the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral without the skyscrapers of the City, the Vauxhall gardens crowded with ladies dressed in a 18th century fashion and even Greenwich beyond the Thames, in a striking parallel between now and then.
This will not be the last time that Italian vedutisti come to London from Venice. Recently, Christie's auction house announced that on July, 8th 2014 a "real" Guardi, depicting Venice, the Bacino di San Marco With the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace, will be offered at auction.
The painting, which was off the market for over a century, is estimated at 8-10 million pounds and will reach the British city after a tour that will put it on display in Moscow, New York and Hong Kong.
Thanks to a singular initiative of a blogger on Imgur it will be easier to accomplish this from now on: since a few days the project of a certain shystone has become a big hit on the web. He humorously superimposed the works from renowned landscape painters on present-days Google Street View screenshots.
Among the views of Covent Garden (1737) by Brisith artist Balthazar Nebot, the Trafalgar Square rendering by William Logsdail (1888) and the Blackman Street painted by John Atkinson Grimshaw (1885), five vedutas created by Giovanni Antonio Canal, also known as Canaletto, between 1740s and 1750s make their appearance.
Anyone can admire from the web the Westminster Abbey without the well-known Big Ben in the background, the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral without the skyscrapers of the City, the Vauxhall gardens crowded with ladies dressed in a 18th century fashion and even Greenwich beyond the Thames, in a striking parallel between now and then.
This will not be the last time that Italian vedutisti come to London from Venice. Recently, Christie's auction house announced that on July, 8th 2014 a "real" Guardi, depicting Venice, the Bacino di San Marco With the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace, will be offered at auction.
The painting, which was off the market for over a century, is estimated at 8-10 million pounds and will reach the British city after a tour that will put it on display in Moscow, New York and Hong Kong.
COMMENTI
LA MAPPA
NOTIZIE
