^
Born on 05 March 1696: Giovanni-Battista
Tiepolo, Italian painter who died on 27 March 1770. —
He was the father of Giovanni
Domenico Tiepolo [30 August 1727
– 03 March 1804] and of Lorenzo Baldissera
Tiepolo [08 August 1736 – 1776]. His students included Charles
Flipart and Francesco
Zugno.
— Giambattista Tiepolo was the last of the great Venetian decorators,
the purest exponent of the Italian Rococo, and arguably the greatest painter
of the 18th century. He was trained under academic painter Gregorio
Lazzarini [1655 – 10 Nov 1730] but was really formed by the study
of Sebastiano
Ricci and Piazzetta
among living painter and Veronese
among the older masters. He was received into the Fraglia (Guild) in 1717
but had already painted the Sacrifice of Abraham (1716), a dark
picture very much in the manner of Piazzetta and the 17th century generally.
In 1719 he married the sister of Guardi
and at about this time his own lighter and loose style began to form.
Tiepolo's first great commission for fresco
decorations came in 1725, when he began the work in the Archbishop's
Palace at Udine (completed 1728). These already show the virtuosity
of his handling, the light tone and pale colors necessitated by fresco obviously
helping him to break free from the dark Piazettesque models he had previously
followed. The Udine frescoes also show him developing as the creator of
a world in steep perspective beyond the picture plane, with the architecture
receding into dizzy distances. The highly specialized work of painting these
architectural perspectives was done by Mengozzi-Colonna, who did this work
for Tiepolo for most of his life.
After the Udine frescoes, Tiepolo traveled
widely in Northern Italy, painting many more frescoes in palaces and churches,
as well as altarpieces in oil which culminate in the gigantic Gathering
of the Manna and Sacrifice of Melchidezek (1740), each of
which is about 10 m high. The frescoes of this period culminate in the Antony
and Cleopatra series in the Palazzo
Labia, Venice, which were probably finished just before 1750, when he
left Venice for Würzburg.
Tiepolo was invited to decorate the ceiling
of the Kaisersaal in the Residenz at Würzburg by the Prince-Bishop,
Karl Phillip von Greiffenklau, and Tiepolo and his sons Giandomenico
and Lorenzo arrived in Würzburg at the end of 1750 and remained there until
1753, replacing Johann Zick, a German student of Piazzetta. He painted the
staircase
with frescoes, some overdoors, and some altarpieces as well as the Kaisersaal,
helped in the gigantic task by both his sons as well as several assistants.
The Palace itself is a superb example of German Rococo
architecture and the combination of architecture and painting into one vast
and airy allegory - apparently referring to the Prince-Bishop as a patron,
but including Barbarossa and German history - is perhaps the most successful
even in Tiepolo's career.
In 1755, after his return to Venice, he was
elected first President of the Venetian Academy and in 1761 he was invited
to Spain to decorate the Royal Palace in Madrid by Charles III. Tiepolo
and his sons arrived in Madrid on 04 June 1762. In spite of his advanced
age, he was extremely productive in the remaining eight years of his life,
creating an impressive number of large frescos and altarpieces in Madrid.
He appears to have been very well aware of the fact that the time for his
art, in which he portrayed triumphal apotheoses and the glorification of
the virtues of his clients by means of illusionistic settings, was well
and truly over. Tiepolo was one of the few European painters still working
on a monumental scale and able to realize extensive interior decorations.
King Charles III of Spain had thus made the right choice in commissioning
this artist to decorate the Throne Room of the Royal Palace in Madrid, only
recently built to designs by Filippo Juvarra [1676-1736] by his student
Sacchetti [died 1764].
Tiepolo had already completed the oil sketch
for the ceiling fresco in the Throne Room, The Glory of Spain,
in Venice (detail 1
_ detail 2
_ detail 3).
The subject portrayed is the glorification of the Spanish nation, which
in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries had developed into one of the
leading European powers, politically, geographically and culturally. The
compositional scheme of the ceiling fresco in the Throne Room is a brilliant
synthesis of decorative elements from Tiepolo's earlier works, such as those
in the Residence in Würzburg and the Villa Pisani in Saintra. Tiepolo reproduces
his previous work in a new setting without compromising the original character
of the fresco or giving the impression of its being a copy. In spite of
the complex structure of the numerous figural elements and the intricate
meaning of its content, and thanks to the largely empty expanse of sky,
the fresco appears to be one of the airiest Tiepolo ever created.
Work on the Throne Room was completed in
1764. The King was pleased with the result and asked Tiepolo to carry out
further decorative work within the palace. The painting of a ceiling fresco
in the Guard Room followed. In the Queen's antechamber, a small room adjoining
the Throne Room, Tiepolo created the ceiling fresco The
Apotheosis of the Spanish Monarchy (1766, 1500x900cm).
In 1767 Charles commissioned seven altarpieces
for Aranjuez, but Tiepolo's last years in Spain were embittered by intrigues
on behalf of Mengs,
the representative of that Neoclassicism which was soon to condemn his kind
of splendid and carefree painting as frivolous. He died suddenly in Madrid.
Tiepolo's enormous output of frescoes and
altarpieces was partly due to his practice (like Rubens
before him) of painting small 'modelli' which, when approved by the client,
could be carried out by his skilled assistants under his own supervision.
Scores of these modelli and sketches survive, together with hundreds of
drawings. He painted very few portraits. He also etched many plates, and,
with Marco
Ricci, was one of the founders of the great school of 18-century Venetian
etchers.
— LINKS
— Venetian
Promenade (1760)
— The
Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (1722, 167x139cm) _ Tiepolo was the most
exuberant and influential, and arguably the greatest, painter in eighteenth-century
Europe before the rise of Neo-Classicism. He revived the full glories of
the Venetian Renaissance enriched with references to Rubens, Rembrandt,
and the Roman Baroque. Tiepolo helped create the style of large-scale decorative
programs embarked on by courts across the continent. His fame rests chiefly
on his huge frescos but he should also be remembered as an extremely versatile
painter, able to move freely from one art form to another and to adapt to
the most disparate subjects. He was a student of Gregorio Lazzarini but
soon surpassed him, being just 21 when he became a member of the Venetian
Painters' Guild. In 1719 he married Cecilia Guardi, sister of the two painters
Francesco and Gianantonio. He was attracted by the experimental work being
done by Piazzetta and Sebastiano Ricci (working alongside them on the paintings
in S. Saintae in 1722).
The subject of the painting is the martyrdom
of Saint Bartholomew, whose tormentors are on the point of flaying him alive.
The awfulness of the scene is matched by the extremely powerful composition
which places the writhing body of the saint along the diagonal between the
two henchmen. The eerie contrast between light and shade makes the scene
all the more vivid. The expressive gesture with which the despairing saint
stretches his arm heavenward transforms the picture into a wonderful depiction
of divine grace, the existence of which is already signaled by the bright
light emanating from above.
— The
Abduction of Europa (1725, 99x134cm) _ Giambattista Tiepolo very early
withdrew from the lessons he was receiving from Gregorio Lazzarini, an academic
of mediocre talents, and developed rather towards the vigorous chiaroscuro
of Federico Bencovich and Piazzetta, renderíng their solutions still
more refined and precious by using colors which have an absolutely unmistakable,
densely fused luminous vibration to them. At the end of this fundamental
experience come the canvas of The Abduction of Europa in which
the mythological subject is depicted in an airy, disenchanted transcription
which at times becomes almost caricature. The severity of the pattern of
chiaroscuro loses intensity in favor of refinement of chromatic notes in
an interpretation of space open and articulated in depth which is as far
from Bencovich and Piazzetta as it is consonant with the taste of Sebastiano
Ricci. And the very lively spacial and luministic framework in which the
figures take their places with such easy confidence offers a foretaste of
the supreme gifts of Tiepolo as an 'organizer' of paintings.
— Education
of the Virgin (1732) _ The figures in this altarpiece are portrayed
more as the heroines of noble dramas than as saints. They combine true pathos
with elegant sensuality, as if they were creatures of some higher human
species. At the same time, however, they are firmly linked to our sense
of everyday life through the descriptive details which are so naturalistic
as to border on trompe-l'oeil.
In the center of the representation, in front
of a magnificent architectural backdrop, stands Mary as a young girl, reading
from an open book, and instructed by her mother, who sits next to her. Her
father, standing to her right, is deep in prayer and has his eyes raised
towards Heaven. What is striking about the composition, is the diagonal
line which runs from the three angels' heads beneath the book to the three
large angels above Mary, and which symbolizes the way to the Kingdom of
Heaven.
— John
the Baptist Preaching (1733, 350x300cm) _ The impressive figure of John
the Baptist, delivering his sermon with raised forefinger from the top of
a rock in the landscape, dominates the right-hand side of the picture. His
cross staff and the lamb at his feet refer to the fate of Christ. The left-hand
side of the picture is almost completely taken up by men, women and children,
who listen spellbound to the sermon. The young woman placed in the very
centre of the picture breast-feeding her child, who thus conforms to the
standardized portrayal of the Madonna and Child, can be understood as an
allusion to the birth of Christ, which is the subject of John's sermon.
— The
Beheading of John the Baptist (1733, 350x300cm) _ Tiepolo presents us
with a particularly graphic depiction of the beheading of John the Baptist,
which takes place in a stone dungeon. The torso of the beheaded man lies
on a raised stone podium, the blood dripping down the few steps which lead
to it, while the executioner, who stands over him, holds up the severed
head. To the left, a female servant approaches with a salver. Behind her,
a young woman turns from the scene in horror. On the right-hand side, Salome,
who has ordered the murder, stands in elegant robes, surrounded by Herod
and members of the royal court.
— The
Scourge of the Serpents (detail) (1735, 164x1356cm complete frieze)
_ During the 1720s Giambattista Tiepolo developed a new coloristic style
of painting derived in principle from the dazzling palette of Veronese and
the no less brilliant one of Sebastiano Ricci. Rejecting the tenebrous color
of Piazzetta, we witness in Tiepolo the triumph of color with a richness
of resonance and counterpoint elaborated within the ordered and monumental
composition. This great frieze is a fine example of Tiepolo's work of the
1730s. The painting in its ornate stucco frame decorated with fruit, flowers
and leaves is over 13 meters long. Three episodes are depicted with a decorative
illusionism contrasting with the declared realist-narrative intent, making
the painting's effect somewhat melodramatic.
— The
Triumph of Zephyr and Flora (1735, 395x225cm) _ As an allegory of Spring,
this picture brings together the god of the spring winds, Zephyr, and the
goddess of all that blooms, Flora. Accompanied by several putti, they hover
on a cloud in the sky, while on the lower edge of the picture, the god of
love, Amor, seems to be showing them the way. The brilliant coloring of
the robes, the successful modelling of the bodies and the dynamic depiction
of the multicolored cloud formations, full of contrasts, make the picture
one of Tiepolo's masterpieces.
— Pope
Saint Clement Adoring the Trinity (1738, 488x256cm) _ The painting shows
Pope Clement I at prayer, in an ecclesiastical architectural setting which
cannot be identified more closely, before a vision of the Holy Trinity.
The lively facial expressions suggest a conversation between Clement and
God the Father, which is further dramatized by the strong chiaroscuro contrasts.
In an allusion to the particular connection between the donor and his famous
patron saint, Tiepolo lends the portrait of the Pope a private character:
the tiara and crosier, symbols of his power, have been laid aside and placed
in the keeping of a putto.
— The
Institution of the Rosary (1739, 1200x450cm) _ The fresco is the largest
version of this subject in European art, and it combines two different iconographic
traditions: in the upper part of the picture, the Rosenkranzbild, in which
Mary gives the Rosary to mankind, and, in the lower part, a depiction of
the beneficence of the Rosary on earth, represented by Saint Dominic. As
well as the Madonna of the Rosary, the fresco also extols Saint Dominic,
the founder of the Dominican order, to whom the dog is a reference (lat.
domini canes, God's hounds). All manner of people are portrayed - represented
among others by the Doge, a Turk, a nun, and a mother and child, a symbol
of Christian charity - so that the viewer, whether rich or poor, could identify
with them.
— Christ
Carrying the Cross (1738, 450x517cm) _ The subject of the painting is
Christ's carrying of the cross to the hill of Golgotha, which rises up in
the centre of the picture as a tall rock, the crosses already erected upon
it. Directly beneath it in the foreground we see Christ in a flame red robe.
He has collapsed under the heavy weight of the cross. To the right, Veronica,
holding the sudarium, turns away from the dramatic scene, visibly moved.
To the left, the two thieves likewise condemned to crucifixion are being
led forward. In the exact centre of the picture, between Christ's cross
and the hill of Golgotha, and directly facing the viewer, are the figures
of Jesus' disciples, together with Mary and Mary Magdalene. Brightly illuminated,
they stand out symbolically from the other figures.
— The
Virgin with Six Saints (1740, 73x56cm) _ In Venetian Cinquecento paintings
of the Madonna, the Virgin and Child are usually represented in a terrestrial
environment, with a landscape background, in the company of saints. This
type of "santa conversazione" was subsequently altered to suit the taste
of the baroque era: in most instances the Virgin Mary, floating among clouds,
appears to the saints situated in earthly regions. As in the Budapest canvas
and in a number of other pictures by Tiepolo, the painter conveys a vision,
an apparition, seeking to establish a connection between celestial and earthly
elements. Most likely the Budapest picture was painted for some pious brotherhood.
Its airily receding architecture, the marvellous purity of its resplendent
colors, the harmony of construction are similar to Tiepolo's works of the
years 1737 to 1740, The Virgin with Six Saints was probably produced simultaneously
with pictures in the church of Gesuati, and the lost Saint Augustine altarpiece
of San Salvatore.
— The
Virgin Appearing to Saint Philip Neri (1740, 360x182cm) _ The saint
stands in profile at the steps of an altar in front of a highly-developed
architectural background. His gaze diverted upward in astonishment, he experiences
the manifestation of the Mother of God and her Child, who appear to float
in the interior of the church on a cloud, accompanied by angels. The rendering
of the material of the robes is particularly impressive, as is the mist-like
quality of the cloud, which almost turns the vision into an actual happening.
— The
Gathering of Manna (1742, 1000x525cm) _ The altarpiece shows Moses standing
on a rocky outcrop, with outspread arms, his gaze raised towards Heaven,
which has already heard his prayers. An angel pours bread from a large vase
down to earth, where the hungry Israelites scurry around on the ground to
collect it. The strict division of the composition into two different areas
- the spheres of heaven and earth - is broken by the figure of Moses, who
is placed dead centre, and so is characterized as a mediator between the
two spheres.
— The
Sacrifice of Melchizedek (1742, 1000x525cm) _ The Sacrifice of Melchizedek
is shown here as a pendant to the Gathering of Manna. The Priest-King of
Salem brings Abraham bread and wine on the evening following the Battle
of the Kings, and blesses him. Abraham, who kneels before him in armor,
and the army to the right are a reminder of the battle which went before.
To the left, we see the civilian population, including women, children and
the elderly, while a triumphal procession is already approaching from behind
the altar.
— The
Banquet of Cleopatra (1744, 249x346cm) _ Magnificent, brightly lit palace
architecture is the setting for Cleopatra's banquet. However, the historical
event of the meeting between the Queen of Egypt and the Roman Anthony takes
second place to the creation of an opulent banqueting scene in the manner
of Veronese. It is therefore the sumptuous costumes, the magnificent receptacles
and the rich variety of foods which draw most attention as they are proffered
by the servants of the court, who include moors, a dwarf and a dog - a collection
of elements typical of the work of Veronese.
— Worshippers
(1745, 410x198cm) _ Giambattista Tiepolo collaborated with the Venetian
quadratura painter Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna on the ceiling fresco of the
nave of the church of Saint Mary of Nazareth called the 'Scalzi', completing
the work in 1743-45 following the careful preparation of studies and models.
The grandiose fresco depicting the 'transportation of the holy house of
Loreto' was almost completely destroyed during World War I. The few remaining
fragments, such as this 'Worshippers', are enough to evoke the richness
of color and conception of this major decorative achievement. The silver-white
tones of the visionary shrine are illuminated by the dazzling hues of the
garments of the nobleman who looks up towards the saintly apparition while
his servant glances curiously downward towards the crowded nave.
— Apollo
and Daphne (1745, 96x79cm) _ The dramatic episode of Apollo and Daphne,
as narrated by Ovid in the "Metamorphoses", is staged in front
of an almost Alpine backdrop. Daphne escapes the attentions of Apollo, who
has fallen madly in love with her, by turning herself into a tree. The moment
in which the transformation begins is represented: Apollo is hard on her
heels and Amor, too, is attempting to hold her, but her hands have already
turned into foliage. The backward-facing figure of a river god in the foreground
marks the end of her desperate flight. The strong contrast between the brilliant
yellow and red robes and the dark blue shades of the background brings to
mind works of French art.
— Discovery
of the True Cross (1745, diameter 490 cm) _ According to legend, Saint
Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, discovered the True Cross on
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Tiepolo portrays the saint, in daring foreshortening
from below, making a triumphal gesture in front of the Cross, which towers
up into the sky. She is surrounded by the usual retinue of soldiers, holy
men, the old and the young, women and children, commonly used by Tiepolo
as extras in his paintings. A number of angels hover over the scene, carrying
a thurible and a tablet bearing the name of Christ, looking down on the
miracle of the discovery of the cross.
This grandiose tondo, originally the centrepiece
of the ceiling decorated by Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna in the Capuchin church
in Castello, is a typical example of Tiepolo's ability to translate any
theme, sacred or profane into a stupendous Baroque magniloquence. Within
the monumental order the areas of color are arranged in patterns of polychromatic
splendor, suffused with a pure light which highlights every carefully observed
detail. In this remarkable example of illusionistic perspective, with which
Tiepolo never tired of amazing his contemporaries, the images are characterized
by distinct notes of colors and emotion with a fascinating musical decorative
freshness.
— The
Virgin Appearing to Dominican Saints (1748, 340x168cm) _ The Virgin
Mary hovers on a throne-like golden yellow cloud beneath a baldachin in
front of Renaissance architecture, dressed in brilliant reds and blues and
accompanied by angels. In the foreground are the three saints, all members
of the Dominican order. Agnes of Montepulciano (1274-1317) sits at the front
and meditates over a small crucifix. Her robes illusionistically jut out
into the viewer's space. To her left stands Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
with a crown of thorns and a crucifix, and Saint Rose of Lima (1586-1617),
holding the Christ Child in her arms. The figures in this altarpiece are
portrayed more as the heroines of noble dramas than as saints. They combine
true pathos with elegant sensuality, as if they were creatures of some higher
human species. At the same time, however, they are firmly linked to our
sense of everyday life through the descriptive details which are so naturalistic
as to border on trompe-l'oeil.
— Last
Communion of Saint Lucy (1748, 222x101cm) _ Saintill further proof of
Tiepolo's extraordinarily eclectic talents comes from the fact that at the
same period that he was working on the breathtakingly secular spectacle
of the frescos in Palazzo Labia, he also painted his most religiously intense
Venetian altarpiece. In no sense did he compromise the clear sobriety of
the architecture nor the brilliance of his palette. Indeed they seem to
underline the sadness of the scene.
With arms crossed, Saint Lucy kneels before
a priest to receive the last communion. Her half closed eyes and the elegiac
expression on her face hint at her later fate. The priests and secular dignitaries
who surround her wear magnificent robes, whose beautifully rendered material
and brilliant colors are of particular intensity. The scene takes place
in front of an imposing palace, upon whose balustrade Tiepolo has again
placed spectators. While the bloody knife and the platter with the gouged-out
eyes in the foreground are a drastic reminder of the impending martyrdom,
the heads of angels which hover over the saint announce her entry into the
Kingdom of Heaven.
— Adoration
by the Magi (1753, 408x210cm) _ Tiepolo painted this altarpiece during
his stay in Germany. Because if the damp climate, he could only work on
the frescoes in the Würzburg Residenz in the spring and summer. So in the
fall and winter he had to concentrate on painting in oil on canvas. He produced
some fantastic and exotically beautiful works in which the religious subject
seems merely a pretext for eye-catching, showy images, but he himself was
genuinely religious. The style of the age, however, meant that even religious
topics often became theatrical.
— Allegory
of the Planets and Continents (1752, 185x139cm) _ Tiepolo was the most
famous Italian painter of the 18th century. His greatest achievement was
the decoration of two rooms in the palace, or Residenz, of Carl Philipp
von Greiffenklau, prince-bishop of Würzburg, carried out between 1751
and 1753. This painting is the oil sketch presented by Tiepolo on April
20, 1752, for the vast fresco over the staircase of the palace. It shows
Apollo about to embark on his daily course across the sky; the deities around
him symbolize the planets, and the allegorical figures on the cornice represent
the four continents of the world. Numerous changes were made between the
oil sketch and the fresco, but this painting shares with the completed ceiling
the feeling for airy space, sun-washed colors, and the prodigious inventiveness
for which Tiepolo is admired.
— The
Death of Hyacinth (1753, 287x235cm) _ In the foreground, accompanied
by a putto, and with a sweeping gesture, Apollo laments Hyacinth, who he
accidentally killed during a ball game, and whose body is impressively laid
out on a red cloth. Behind them to the left, and somewhat distanced, is
a group of onlookers included as staffage, while a grinning statue of Pan
and a parrot, on the right, act as a third centre in the composition, their
presence turning the tragedy of the scene to irony.
— An
Allegory with Venus and Time (1758, 292x190cm) _ To enter fully the
radiant world of Tiepolo we must travel - to Venice, his native city, then
back to the mainland to Udine and Vicenza, across the Alps to Würzburg in
Bavaria, finally to Madrid in Spain where, fearing the shift of taste in
his homeland, he elected to spend the last years of his life. The greatest
decorative painter of his century, he was happiest working in fresco where
his 'rapid and resolute' manner was a technical necessity. Under his virtuoso
brush airy spaces, shimmering with light, opened on walls and ceilings to
admit heroic beings - Christian, mythological, allegorical, historic or
poetic - dazzling to mortal viewers. He has been called the last Renaissance
painter, and borrowed much from Veronese. But Tiepolo, even more than Veronese,
was never wholly serious when painting epic. He can be majestic but not
solemn; poignant rather than tragic. In the century which discovered feminine
sensibility, he introduced a note of tenderness into the sternest and loftiest
imagery.
Luckily for us, something of the freshness
of Tiepolo's mural decorations is preserved in his oil sketches and in this
canvas, painted to be inserted into the ceiling of a room in one of the
many Venetian palaces of the Contarini family. It is designed to be seen
from below, but at an angle, as we step through the door. From infinitely
luminous skies, Venus, sumptuous in her white, gold and pink nudity, has
swooped down in her chariot; her team of doves, released from harness flutter
lovingly above her, and from a dawn-tinted cloud the Three Graces strew
roses. Below, winged Cupid, her divine son, hovers with his quiverful of
arrows. Venus has come to consign her newly born child, freshly washed with
water from an earthenware amphora, to Father Time. Having set down his scythe,
Time here signifies eternity rather than mortality. The child - wide-eyed,
thick-lipped and with a precocious widow's peak in his hairline - resembles
page boys frescoed by Tiepolo shortly before on the staircase of the prince-bishop's
palace in Würzburg. He is clearly meant to be a real baby. Venus' only human
child, born to a mortal father, was Aeneas the founder of Rome. The Contarini,
one of the oldest families in Venice, had fabricated for themselves a lineage
from ancient Rome; the reference to Aeneas thus suggests that the ceiling
may have been commissioned to proclaim the birth of a son. Through august
parentage and his own heroic deeds, a Contarini boy might be expected, like
Aeneas, to win eternal fame.
— A
Seated Man and a Girl with a Pitcher (1755, 160x54cm) _ The painting
belongs to a series of four paintings of identical size, all in the National
Gallery, London.
— The
Theological Virtues (1755, octogonal, 39x38cm) _ This is a modello for
a fresco above the choir of the Santa Maria della Pietà in Venice.
The final fresco closely follows the modello with only minor changes.
— The
Martyrdom of Saint Agatha (1756, 184x131cm) _ This canvas was painted
for the high altar of the church of Saint Agatha in Lendinara. It must originally
have been rounded at the top, for it appears in this form in an etching
by Tiepolo's son, Giovanni Domenico. The part which is now missing showed
a heart surrounded by the crown of thorns in a nimbus, at which the saint
was gazing. The beautiful Agatha was a devout Christian who lived in Catania.
She steadfastly refused to make sacrifice to the heathen gods. When she
defied the threats of the Roman Governor of Sicily, Quintianus, he ordered
her breasts to be cut off. We see her, half-naked, on a flight of steps;
a maid kneels behind her, supporting her and holding her dress against the
bleeding wounds. A page stands in front of a marble pillar, holding the
severed breasts of the martyr on a silver platter and gazing down at her.
The uncouth figure of the executioner, clad in red and holding a blood-stained
sword, towers menacingly over the group.
Tiepolo is among the last of the great Venetian
painters, a master of large-scale composition, who was commissioned by princes
outside (Würzburg, Madrid) as well as inside Italy. Nor did he shrink from
this particularly horrifying subject; once before, twenty years earlier,
he had been required to treat the same subject for the church of S. Antonio
in Padua. With astonishing self-assurance the painter succeeds in portraying
this fearful episode in artistic terms without allowing it to degenerate
into mere bloodshed and horror. At the same time, so strong is his desire
for realism - and he had doubtless witnessed executions himself - that he
exploits to the utmost the artistic possibilities open to him.
In color and form the composition is extremely
accomplished, almost too much so to do justice to the theme. Between the
soaring pillar and the towering figure of the executioner, one glimpses
the dark entrance of the dungeon and beneath it the pale face of the martyr,
flanked on both sides - almost oppressively close - by the faces of the
two witnesses. The compassion expressed in the attitude of the young woman
on the right contrasts with the searching glance of the page on the left,
in which merely the physical effect of the scene before him is reflected.
The wide, pale-blue cloak of the saint serves to bind the group of three
figures together and blends with the silver-white, the bright yellow and
the orange to produce a color-harmony that is characteristic of Tiepolo.
Two of the artist's crayon studies for the saint's face are in the Kupferstichkabinett
(Copper Engravings section) in the Berlin Museum.
— Allegory
of Merit Accompanied by Nobility and Virtue (1758) _ The oval-shaped
ceiling fresco shows the allegory of Merit on the left-hand side, personified
by an elderly, bearded man wearing a laurel wreath. Accompanied by Nobility
and the winged figure of Virtue, dressed in white, he rises up on a cloud
populated by putti towards the temple of Glory. On the upper edge of the
picture, Fame announces the glory of Merit by sounding her trumpets. The
mostly empty skies in the centre of the fresco contain only clouds and several
putti.
— Madonna
of the Goldfinch (1760) _ Eighteenth century Venetian painters tended
to use high keyed, muted colors, possibly reflecting the current vogue for
pastels. The goldfinch was a medieval symbol of protection against the plague.
— Woman
with a Parrot (1761) _ Although Tiepolo did from time to time produce
excellent portraits, this luminous painting may not be a portrait at all.
It is, however, almost a symbol of eighteenth-century grace. The rosy bust
of the extremely pretty young girl can without disadvantage be compared
to the sensual female half busts that Titian had painted two centuries earlier.
— The
Apotheosis of the Pisani Family (1762, 2350x1350cm) _ The ceiling fresco
is conceived as a trompe-l'oeil opening onto a silvery-blue sky, whose endless
depths are defined by various towering cloud formations. The composition
consists of two sections which exist independently of one another: the portrayal
of the Pisani family and various allegorical figures in the lower portion,
and the Continents in the upper portion. The figure of Fame, sounding her
trumpets in either direction, connects the two. Below her, Divine Wisdom
is enthroned and reigns over a harmonious empire. The Virtues Faith, Justice,
Love, Hope and Saintrength appear at her feet. _ (detail 1)
This section shows the known continents of Asia, America, and Africa on
a cloud, while Europe is portrayed above them, on a bull, to express the
greater degree of civilization she was thought to possess. A battle scene
appears along the lower edge of the picture and obviously refers to the
subjugation of the Turks, symbolized by the two figures in long coats, who
have thrown themselves down in front of the invaders. _ (detail 2)
The various members of the Pisani family are surrounded by several allegorical
figures. Truth appears as a naked woman, the crowned woman atop the globe
and seen from behind personifies Italy, while the various arts are represented
at her feet: Astronomy with telescope and globe, Music with horn and score,
Sculpture with block of marble and bust, as well as Painting with brush.
The allegories of Peace with palm leaves, and of Plenty with amphora and
floral crown complete the scene on the left-hand side.
— The
Immaculate Conception (1769, 279x152cm) _ In an awe-inspiring, powerful
manifestation, the Virgin Mary hovers in the skies, atop a globe, and in
front of a yellow background. Above her the dove appears, symbolizing the
Holy Spirit. The palm tree in the foreground is a symbol of Mary's victory
and superiority over evil in the world, the snake under her feet stands
for original sin. The mirror, on the other hand, illustrates the belief
that she is completely without blemish and that she herself is the mirror
of all virtues. The crescent moon refers to the Woman of the Apocalypse
in Saint John's Gospel and is also a symbol of chastity.
— The
Angel Succoring Hagar (1732, 140x120cm) — 43
etchings at FAMSF
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