Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional Search Ir al contenido principal

Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
Visit Collection Exhibitions Activities Education Search
  • Visit
  • Collection
  • Exhibitions
  • Activities
  • Education

Thyssen - Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
©
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Bernardo Bellotto

Capriccio with a River and Bridge

ca. 1745
Oil on canvas.
48.5 x 73 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
40
(
1934.2
)
ROOM 17
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Bernardo Bellotto, Canaletto’s pupil and nephew, was together with his uncle one of the great painters of urban views. His repertoire of subjects, which was considerably larger than Canaletto’s, encompassed a number of cities such as Lucca, Florence, Rome, Turin and Verona, in addition to his early Venetian views. This list of locations would increase in the late 1750s with his close-up and panoramic views Dresden, Vienna, Munich and Warsaw and his depictions of their principal buildings.

The present painting dates to Bellotto’s early period and is an example of the type of ideal landscape generally described as a Capriccio. In works of this type artists brought together real buildings from different places, changing their location and placing them next to other imaginary ones against a landscape background. In his early works Bellotto’s style was notably close to that of Canaletto.

The present canvas was in the Viennese collection of Camillo Castiglione and was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1925. It entered the UK art market with Thomas Agnew & Sons, where it was to be found in 1926. The canvas was acquired for the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection 1934 and is first mentioned in the literature by Rudolf Heinemann in his entries in the catalogues of the Collection. Pallucchini studied the painting in 1960 and published it in his text on 18th-century Venetian painting.

Traditionally dated to around 1740–42, in recent studies the painting has been given a date of 1745, after Bellotto’s time in Lombary. The traditional title of Paduan Capriccio has also been modified due to the identification of some of the elements and the revised identification of others. For example, the country residence on the left is similar to those on the banks of the Brenta, while the tower was previously identified as the one in Ezzelino, leading to the original date of around 1740 when Bellotto was in Padua. However, these Paduan elements are combined with others suggestive of Venice as well as the misty mountains in the background and an innovative treatment of the tower on the right, which recalls the tower in the principal courtyard of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. This has suggested that the painting dates from after the artist’s trip to Lombardy. According to Marini the painting also contains compositional elements that Bellotto used in his celebrated view of the Ponte delle Navi in Verona.

The present Capriccio has been related to a drawing attributed to Bellotto in the Boijmans-Van-Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. In the drawing a bridge spans a canal from one side of the composition to the other, while the right side has a similar building to the one in the Museum’s canvas with a tomb similarly attached to its wall. On the left, however, the drawing includes a city. The banks of the river are different to the present work and Bellotto placed more emphasis on the right bank. These small differences do not, however, affect the overall spirit of the composition and the numerous similarities with the present canvas. According to specialist authors, the drawing in Rotterdam is based on another by Canaletto in the British Royal Collection.

Despite the evident stylistic debt to Canaletto, the painting reveals features typical of Bellotto’s own style such as the detailed description of each of the individual elements and the way they are combined to give a sense of reality to the overall view. The differences with Canaletto also extend to the use of pronounced contrasts between the areas in shadow and those illuminated by the sun. In addition, the figures are taller and less precisely painted, the chromatic range is cooler and the brushstroke more heavily charged.

Mar Borobia
18th Century18th Century - Italian paintingPaintingOilcanvas
Listen
Download image Print page

Products and publications

Capriccio with a River and Bridge

Capriccio with a River and Bridge

17.00 €

Delaunay, Sonia

Delaunay, Sonia

17.00 €

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue  V1 (Spanish)

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue V1 (Spanish)

65.00 € 25.00 €

Poster Richard Estes: People's Flower

Poster Richard Estes: People's Flower

12.50 €

Visit online shop

More from the collection

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
The Bucintoro
ca. 1745 - 1750
Giovanni Antonio Guardi
Giovanni Antonio Guardi
Scene in the Garden of a Seraglio
ca. 1743
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
The South Façade of Warwick Castle
1748
Giuseppe Zocchi
Giuseppe Zocchi
The Arno River at the Santa Trinita Bridge
ca. 1741
  • Private and/or didactic use
  • Commercial use
Private and/or didactic use
Capriccio with a River and Bridge. Capricho con río y puente, c. 1745
Capriccio with a River and Bridge
Bernardo Bellotto

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes, and other non-commercial uses.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial or advertising use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use:

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified, or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images authorized by the Fundación must be accompanied by the following mention: Author's name. Title, Date © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
  • The user will send to the Museum Photo Library of the Fundación one (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotográfico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Download image
Commercial use
Capriccio with a River and Bridge. Capricho con río y puente, c. 1745
Capriccio with a River and Bridge
Bernardo Bellotto

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photographic Archive of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Download image
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional

Navegación secundaria (EN)

  • #Thyssenmultimedia
  • Press
  • Corporate events
  • Tourism
  • Join our team
  • Newsletter
Instagram
Facebook
X
Youtube
TikTok
iVoox
LinkedIn

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza would like to thanks for the collaboration of:

Fundación Mutua Madrileña Master Card Comunidad de Madrid
©2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Menú al pie (EN)

  • Legal terms and use of images
  • Public tenders
  • Transparency site
  • Accessibility and quality
  • Sustainability & 2030 Agenda
  • Contact
Ministry of Culture España es cultura | Spain is culture. The website promoting Spanish culture Paisaje de la Luz | Paseo del Prado y Buen Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias
Certificación de Conformidad con el Esquema Nacional de Seguridad. Categoría Media. RD 311/2022