As I very closely followed my map through the varying size rooms of the Dayton Art Institute I finally found what I was searching for, room 213. After entering the well lit room I took a right and briefly began looking at the pieces of art to find one that really stuck out to me more than others. As I strolled through I saw one and then decided to take another look until I was sure and so I decided on The Pantheon by Bernardo Bellotto (c. 1742). I choose this oil on canvas painting because I have been to the Pantheon in real life and it was amazing that after more than 250 years the square and surrounding area look almost identical to back in 1742. The artist, Bernardo Bellotto was born in 1721 in Venice Italy and by age 14 worked for his uncle Canaletto (Antonio Canal) who was a great Venetian…show more content… Also, as I will touch on more in the iconography it is to show the power and strength of God. The Pantheon uses geometric shapes (rectangle, triangle, cylinder) to give the viewer a very realistic cityscape of the area. The texture in the painting make the square and surrounding buildings look worn. They show stained walls, discolored paint, and the Pantheon along the dome you can see that there are vines growing on the edges. As for value this is a low key painting due to the amount of dark colors and grays because of the shadows. The parts that are well lit such as the fountain are lighter to make sure the onlooker will make it more of a focal point. Low key dominates but not by very much because of the chiaroscuro of the morning sun on the plaza. Bellotto when using space specifically size and position I felt he stayed very realistic with his proportion of how large each building is in my opinion. Also, historically speaking if architects used his paintings to rebuild buildings after WWII they must have been very close to how they looked in real life. He uses an atmospheric perspective because the buildings become much less detailed as you look
