The works of two internationally-known eighteenth century Venetian artists are currently on display at the Hood Museum of Art.
The exhibition titled "Two Views of Italy" features the veduta prints of topographical artists Antonio Canaletto and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Veduta prints depict important towns and cities.
This marks the first time an exhibition has explored the relationship between the two artists within the development of the veduta print in Rome and Venice.
The exhibition is drawn from the Hood's permanent collection, which includes Piranesi's "Views of Rome," part of a rare two-volume collection of etchings published in 1753.
"Two Views of Italy" includes 53 early and rare edition veduta prints and also features a Canaletto paining on loan from the Toledo Museum of Art.
Prints by Canaletto and Piranesi include scenes of ruins, modern architecture and public squares.
Most view pictures express the "public face" of a city with emphasis placed on its important religious and civic buildings as well as focusing on a city's social life.
These prints follow this form while striving to captureordinary city life.
Both Venitian by birth, Canaletto and Piranesi worked chiefly in Venice and Rome, creating their individual prints for different purposes.
Canaletto is recognized as the premier view painter of his time and only made one series of etchings in his career. These rare prints were dedicated to his patron, English consul Joseph Smith.
By contrast, Piranesi was a professional printmaker and distributed his works all over Europe.
The exhibit will remain on view at the Hood through Sept. 3.
