Hardcover. Ithaca NY, Cornell/ Phaidon, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 239 pages, large format. Profusely illustrated in color, b&w. Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), known as Canaletto, is one of the most popular of all old master painters. His views of Venice and London are much celebrated and admired. The author traces Canaletto's career from his beginnings as a scene-painter with his father to the work of his later years.