Italian Rococo Era Painter, 1696-1770
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was born in Venice on March 5, 1696. His father, who was part owner of a ship, died when Tiepolo was scarcely a year old, but the family was left in comfortable circumstances. As a youth, he was apprenticed to Gregorio Lazzarini, a mediocre but fashionable painter known for his elaborately theatrical, rather grandiose compositions.
Tiepolo soon evolved a more spirited style of his own. By the time he was 20, he had exhibited his work independently, and won plaudits, at an exhibition held at the church of S. Rocco. The next year he became a member of the Fraglia, or painters guild. In 1719 he married Cecilia Guardi, whose brother Francesco was to become famous as a painter of the Venetian scene. They had nine children, among them Giovanni Domenico and Lorenzo Baldassare, who were also painters.
In the 1720s Tiepolo carried out many large-scale commissions on the northern Italian mainland. Of these the most important is the cycle of Old Testament scenes done for the patriarch of Aquileia, Daniele Dolfin, in the new Archbishop Palace at Udine. Here Tiepolo abandoned the dark hues that had characterized his early style and turned instead to the bright, sparkling colors that were to make him famous.
1736 Oil on canvas Universitet Konsthistoriska Institutionen, StockholmArtist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: Jupiter and Dana? Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : mythological
1736 Oil on canvas Universitet Konsthistoriska Institutionen, StockholmArtist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: Jupiter and Dana? Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : mythological
Height Width
INS/CM Quality
X
Education of the Virgin
Education of the Virgin
Painting ID:: 63764
1732 Oil on canvas S. Maria della Consolazione (Fava), Venice 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 centre 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.Artist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: Education of the Virgin Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : religious
1732 Oil on canvas S. Maria della Consolazione (Fava), Venice 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 centre 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.Artist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: Education of the Virgin Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : religious
Height Width
INS/CM Quality
X
John the Baptist Preaching
John the Baptist Preaching
Painting ID:: 63765
1732-33 Fresco, 350 x 300 cm Cappella Colleoni, Bergamo 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.Artist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: John the Baptist Preaching Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : religious
1732-33 Fresco, 350 x 300 cm Cappella Colleoni, Bergamo 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.Artist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: John the Baptist Preaching Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : religious
Height Width
INS/CM Quality
X
The Scourge of the Serpents
The Scourge of the Serpents
Painting ID:: 63766
The Scourge of the Serpents (detail) 1732-35 Oil on canvas, 164 x 1356 cm (complete frieze) Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice During the 1720s Giambattista Tiepolo developed a new colouristic style of painting derived in principle from the dazzling palette of Veronese and the no less brilliant one of Sebastiano Ricci. Rejecting the tenebrous colour of Piazzetta, we witness in Tiepolo the triumph of colour with a richness of resonance and counterpoint elaborated within the ordered and monumental composition. The great frieze, originally below the choir of the Venetian church of SS. Cosma and Damiani on the Giudecca (Zanetti 1771), 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 metres long. Three episodes are depicted with a decorative illusionism contrasting with the declared realist-narrative intent, rendering the painting somewhat melodramatic effect.Artist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: The Scourge of the Serpents (detail) Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : religious
The Scourge of the Serpents (detail) 1732-35 Oil on canvas, 164 x 1356 cm (complete frieze) Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice During the 1720s Giambattista Tiepolo developed a new colouristic style of painting derived in principle from the dazzling palette of Veronese and the no less brilliant one of Sebastiano Ricci. Rejecting the tenebrous colour of Piazzetta, we witness in Tiepolo the triumph of colour with a richness of resonance and counterpoint elaborated within the ordered and monumental composition. The great frieze, originally below the choir of the Venetian church of SS. Cosma and Damiani on the Giudecca (Zanetti 1771), 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 metres long. Three episodes are depicted with a decorative illusionism contrasting with the declared realist-narrative intent, rendering the painting somewhat melodramatic effect.Artist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: The Scourge of the Serpents (detail) Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : religious
Italian Rococo Era Painter, 1696-1770
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was born in Venice on March 5, 1696. His father, who was part owner of a ship, died when Tiepolo was scarcely a year old, but the family was left in comfortable circumstances. As a youth, he was apprenticed to Gregorio Lazzarini, a mediocre but fashionable painter known for his elaborately theatrical, rather grandiose compositions.
Tiepolo soon evolved a more spirited style of his own. By the time he was 20, he had exhibited his work independently, and won plaudits, at an exhibition held at the church of S. Rocco. The next year he became a member of the Fraglia, or painters guild. In 1719 he married Cecilia Guardi, whose brother Francesco was to become famous as a painter of the Venetian scene. They had nine children, among them Giovanni Domenico and Lorenzo Baldassare, who were also painters.
In the 1720s Tiepolo carried out many large-scale commissions on the northern Italian mainland. Of these the most important is the cycle of Old Testament scenes done for the patriarch of Aquileia, Daniele Dolfin, in the new Archbishop Palace at Udine. Here Tiepolo abandoned the dark hues that had characterized his early style and turned instead to the bright, sparkling colors that were to make him famous.