LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.- The Getty Center presents "Drawing Italy in the Age of the Grand Tour", on view through May 12, 2002. Throughout the 1700s travelers flocked to the Italian provinces in search of inspiration, enlightenment, discovery and adventure. Aristocratic visitors and connoisseurs encouraged the production of landscapes and cityscapes, visual records and souvenirs of the sites encountered on their travels. Ancestors of the modern-day postcard, vedute, or expansive views, were vehicles for the artist's creative and illusionistic vision of nature and architecture. The visitor is guided through the vast and varied territories of Italy, from a Venetian backstreet by Giovanni Antonio Canal, and a theatrical performance by Francesco Guardi, to an imaginary antique port by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.