Bellotto, Bernardo (1721–1780)
Pirna, Obertor dal Sud (Pirna: The Obertor from the South)
mid-1750s
Oil on canvas, 46.4 x 78.1 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Bellotto was Canaletto’s nephew and student who himself was to become an internationally renowned view painter. Between 1747 and 1758, he worked for the court of Dresden, in present-day Germany, and painted the nearby village of Pirna, depicted here with its city gate, adjacent tower (known as the Obertor), church, and town hall. Its clear, silvery light is typical of Bellotto’s mature work. Friederich August II, elector of Saxony and king of Poland, and Count Brühl, his prime minister, commissioned larger-scale views of Pirna between 1753 and 1756. Presumably, a private patron commissioned this reduced replica based on the success of those views. (MET)