This book reveals the extraordinary artistic relationship between Italian artists Canaletto (1697-1768) and Bernardo Bellotto (1722-80).

Bellotto was Canaletto's nephew and assistant, and an adept pupil--he picked up his uncle's teachings so well that he sometimes signed his work as "Bellotto de Canaletto" and traded on the illustrious name, particularly after he settled in northern Europe in 1747.

Canaletto, famous for his precisely painted views of Venice, taught Bellotto how to use a camera obscura in his painting, and both share a meticulous style. But in...