Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Italian painter

• Born: March 5, 1696
• Birthplace: Venice (now in Italy)
• Died: March 27, 1770
• Place of death: Madrid, Spain

The last important painter of the Venetian school, Tiepolo was the most versatile of the Italian ceiling painters. Although he worked primarily in the Baroque tradition, his work shares some qualities of the rococo.

Early Life

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (joh-VAHN-nee baht-TEES-tah TYEH-poh-loh) was born in Venice on March 5, 1696, the son of a wealthy merchant. When his father died, Tiepolo’s mother apprenticed him to Gregorio Lazzarini, a minor painter, from whom Tiepolo received his first instruction in painting. Later, Tiepolo became familiar with the Venetian decorative tradition. His first work, The Sacrifice of Isaac (1716), is noteworthy for its strong contrasts of light and shade. This early work reflects the influence of Giovanni Battista Piazetta, a member of the Bolognese and Roman Baroque school of painting.

Tiepolo’s career as an independent artist actually began in 1717, at which time his name first appears on the lists of the Venetian painters’ guild. His studio was so successful at this time that he married Cecilia Guardi, the seventeen-year-old sister of the painters Giovanni Antonio and Francesco Guardi. Despite his success, Tiepolo continued to learn, employing techniques from both Venetian and foreign painters of the eighteenth century in his prolific outpouring of etchings after sixteenth century subjects. Tiepolo’s Madonna of Carmelo and the Souls of Purgatory (1720) clearly demonstrates the influence of Piazetta. His tendency to create large masses in violent contrasts of light and dark on a diagonal is evident in another early work, Repudiation of Hagar, which he painted when he was twenty.

The works that Tiepolo entered for the competitions of 1716 and 1717, Crossing the Red Sea and Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, respectively, led to several commissions. His first important commission was Glory of Saint Teresa, which he painted for the vault of the side chapel in the Church of the Scalzi. This work was followed by four paintings of mythological subjects, Diana and Callistro, Diana and Actaeon, Apollo and Marsyas, and the Rape of Europa. Church commissions were followed by commissions from such private persons as Doge Cornaro, who assigned him to paint the canvases and frescoes for his palace in 1722. The paintings that he did for the Palazzo Sandi a Corte dell’Alberto, while foreshadowing the heroic subjects of his later works, still possess the qualities of his early works, such as figures with popping round eyes and contorted limbs. During this time, Tiepolo was still looking for a style and a medium that suited him. He was still imitating the style of the nonrococo painters, and the prosaic way in which he treated his historical and religious subjects testified to the fact that he was an unlearned painter.

Life’s Work

Tiepolo reached his full maturity of expression in his frescoes. The promise that was displayed in his first frescoes, the Power of Eloquence and the Glory of Saint Teresa, which were painted for the Palazzo Sandi a Corte dell’Alberto in 1725, was fully realized in the frescoes of the Archiepiscopal Palace in Udine. Between 1725 and 1728, he frescoed the Fall of the Rebel Angels in the ceiling above the main staircase and painted several episodes from the Book of Job in the gallery with the help of his longtime assistant, Mengozzi Colonna, who did the framings. In these paintings, which feature Abraham and his descendants dressed in sixteenth century costumes, he replaced the gloominess that had characterized his early works with dazzling colors. These paintings are distinguished from those of his contemporaries in their credibility. For example, the central figure in Angel Appealing to Sarah is a nearly toothless old woman, not a beautiful noblewoman. When he was finished, Tiepolo returned to Venice and his family.

Tiepolo was still developing as an artist when, at age thirty-five, two important commissions took him to Milan in 1731. At the Palazzo Archinto (which was destroyed by bombings during World War II) he painted the Triumph of the Arts and mythological scenes in four ceilings, the most successful of which was Phaethon Begging Apollo to Allow Him to Drive the Chariot of the Sun. As in most of his ceiling frescoes, the ceiling becomes the sky. Some of the scenes still survive in modelletti, pen-and-ink watercolor sketches that he usually submitted to his patrons before starting work. Working with his characteristic speed, Tiepolo completed the Story of Scipio frescoes, historical paintings in Baroque settings, in only a few months for the Palazzo Casati-Dugnani. Unlike the Udine frescoes, which are witty and dashing, the subjects of these scenes are much more serious and elevated.

Tiepolo spent the next two years, 1732-1733, at Bergamo, where he frescoed four allegorical figures and some scenes in the life of John the Baptist in Colleoni Chapel. The airy landscapes of these paintings represent an innovation in his style. The modelletti and two small pictures, The Last Communion of Saint Jerome and the Death of Saint Jerome, are characterized by a grainy texture. The clear-cut contours of the figures illustrate the progress that he had made since the sketches of the Udine period. During this same period, Tiepolo painted three large canvases depicting an episode from Roman history for the main saloon of the Villa Grimani-Valmara. To the Bergamo period may also be assigned the altarpiece in the parish church of Rovetta Sopra Bergamo. In this painting, The Virgin in Glory Adored by the Apostles and Saints, he eliminated all traces of Piazetta, abandoning the dark tonality, heaviness of color, and agitated undulation in his line. Tiepolo closed the 1730’s with the frescoing of the ceiling of the Palazzo Clerici in Milan, which ranks as one of the most fascinating pictorial creations of the century and introduced a new compositional principle: the creation of a centrifugal effect by concentrating a group of figures along the edge of the ceiling.

In the decade between 1740 and 1750, Tiepolo experimented with forms of the great luminosity that had been rediscovered by Piazetta and Guardi and reached full maturity as an artist. By this time, the most prestigious families of the republic were vying for his works. He left Venice only once during this period, and that was to decorate the Villa Cordellina at Montecchio Maggiore. The works produced in this period, many of which have secular themes, reflect a decorative balance and a greater fusion and transparency. He also became closer to the classical tastes of the time through his long relationship with Count Francesco Algarotti.

Algarotti’s insistence that Tiepolo strive for extreme delicacy and refinement manifests itself in the Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra, which Tiepolo created for the central saloon of the Palazzo Labia. Not only is this one of Tiepolo’s greatest frescoes, but it also is one of the most beautiful examples of pictorial illusionism ever painted. This effect was achieved with the help of Mengozzi Colonna, who turned each of the end walls into a facade with a tall central archway leading into the fresco itself. Tiepolo’s fascination with the classic world is still evident between 1745 and 1750, when he painted Neptune Offering to Venice the Riches of the Sea. At the end of the decade, he collaborated with his son Domenico to paint the Consilium in Arena, which commemorated the Council of the Order of Malta.

In 1750, Tiepolo and his two sons, Domenico, age twenty-three, and Lorenzo, age fourteen, were summoned to Würzburg to decorate the newly built Residenz of the prince-bishop. During his three-year stay at Würzburg, Tiepolo painted two masterpieces that rank among the greatest creations of pictorial art. Tiepolo began with the ceiling of the saloon, where he painted Apollo Conducting Barbarossa’s Bride, Beatrice of Burgundy. The frescoes on the walls, which glorified several episodes in the life of the Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) are much less imaginative.

Tiepolo then turned his attention to the staircase ceiling, the most monumental undertaking of his career until that time. The staircase ceiling, on which Tiepolo depicted Olympus and the four parts of the known world, has been called Tiepolo’s Sistine chapel. The influence of Peter Paul Rubens, whose work Tiepolo saw in Germany, is apparent in the ceiling. Before leaving Germany, Tiepolo also found time to execute numerous works on canvas. The romantic, poetic themes that now preoccupied him culminated in four charming canvases depicting the story of Rinaldo and Armida. He also ventured outside Würzburg to paint one of his finest religious works, the altarpiece of the Adoration of the Magi, for the Church of the Benedictines of Schwarzach. While in Germany, he was assisted by Domenico and by a group of pupils from his school.

Tiepolo returned to Venice in 1753, confident that he had succeeded in promoting Venetian painting outside Italy. Instead of simply basking in his fame, Tiepolo continued to build his reputation in Venice. Two years after his return, he was elected president of the Venetian Academy. In 1757, he and Domenico frescoed the hall and four downstairs rooms for the Villa Valmarana. By this time, Tiepolo had completely abandoned the diagonal perspective of his youth; instead, the figures move in planes parallel to the wall. He returned to the influence of Paolo Veronese, one of Italy’s greatest ceiling painters, in the relationships of the figures in Sacrifice of Iphigenia. That same year, Tiepolo also frescoed four circular panels with allegories of the Arts, Music, Science, and History on the ceiling of the grand saloon in the Palazzo Valmarana-Trenta in Vincenza, which was destroyed in the bombardments of 1945. His Catholic sensibilities once again surfaced in the great altarpiece of Saint Thecla, which he painted for the Church of the Grazie at Este in 1759.

While working at the Villa Pisani, Tiepolo was invited by Charles III of Spain to decorate the royal palace. Without his faithful assistant Mengozzi Colonna, who was now seventy-four years old and feeble, or his two sons, Tiepolo arrived at Madrid after two months of traveling by land. After recovering from fatigue, the sixty-six-year-old painter began painting the Apotheosis of Spain in the throne room in 1762. In this fresco, Spain is surrounded by symbolic and mythological figures in the skies.

In 1764, Tiepolo painted two ceilings of lesser importance in the same palace. After completing the frescoes, Tiepolo remained in the service of the king, painting seven altarpieces at Aranjuez. He had no sooner finished them than the king replaced them with works by Anton Raphael Mengs, Francisco Bayeu, and others, leaving Tiepolo a disappointed and bitter man. Though damaged, the surviving altarpieces reflect a new intensity; no longer are the subjects excuses for grand displays of celestial pageants. The last three years of his life were occupied by feverish activity. He executed many works for the court of Russia, which were sent from Spain, as well as a series of small canvases of religious subjects, such as the Flight into Egypt. On March 27, 1770, Tiepolo died suddenly in Spain. He was buried in his parish church of Saint Martin, but both the church and his tomb have been destroyed.

Significance

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo will be remembered not only as one of the greatest decorative painters of eighteenth century Europe but also as the man who revived Venetian painting. A tireless and prolific worker, he achieved success at an early age, first displaying his formidable talent in the Church of the Ospedaletto at the age of nineteen. As his fame spread, he helped to free Venetian art from the chiaroscuro style with its strong contrasts of light and shade.

Tiepolo also stands apart from his contemporaries in his mastery of linear perspective, which is exhibited in the weightless qualities that the figures in his ceiling frescoes seem to possess. Above all, Tiepolo raised the status of fresco painting from that of a secondary, decorative role to the high artistic rank that it had held in the golden age of the Cinquecento. Like his predecessor, Bonifazio Veronese, Tiepolo was skilled in the art of setting angels and gods in a seemingly limitless space. His dramatic imagination populated his frescoes with subjects drawn from both mythology and religion who are painted as flesh and blood human beings instead of mere puppets. His frescoes were, in a sense, the definitive complement to the rococo churches and palaces of his day.

Tiepolo’s work has suffered the same critical fate as that of other artists who achieved considerable wealth and fame in their lifetime. The hostile response of the Spanish court toward his work foreshadowed the nineteenth century’s hostile reception of his work, especially in France and England. Even at the height of his success, he was the victim of shifting tastes, being popular primarily in northern Italy. Modern taste, though, seems to have accepted his work without reservation.

Bibliography

Alpers, Svetlana, and Michael Baxandall. Tiepolo and the Pictorial Intelligence. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994. Examination of Tiepolo’s work by two art historians. The authors conclude that Tiepolo’s greatness is his “pictorial intelligence,” or the ability to use visual media, such as paintings, drawings, and natural lighting.

Barcham, William L. Giambattista Tiepolo. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1992. A biographical study, illustrated with thirty-six black-and-white reproductions. Also includes forty color plates, with commentaries by Barcham describing them.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Religious Paintings of Giambattista Tiepolo: Piety and Tradition in Eighteenth-Century Venice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Barcham’s study, the first to concentrate on Tiepolo’s religious paintings, treats its subject as an expression of the values of the Venetian Republic. Illustrated with four line drawings, 133 halftones, and nine color plates.

Krückman, Peter Oluf. Tiepolo: Masterpieces of the Würzburg Years. New York: Prestel, 1996. Describes how Tiepolo received the commission to decorate the Residenz of the prince-bishop and analyzes the work he created there. Focuses on the frescoes he painted, examining the relationship between the frescoes and the architecture of the Residenz. Also discusses the oil paintings that Tiepolo and his sons created in Würzburg.

Levey, Michael. Giambattista Tiepolo: His Life and Art. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986. Reprint. 1994. Comprehensive examination of Tiepolo’s life and career, including detailed analyses of his major artworks. The book describes how Tiepolo aimed to create an alternative universe of light and color.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Painting in Eighteenth Century Venice. New York: Phaidon Press, 1959. Not primarily a biography, although the chapter on Tiepolo discusses his major works in chronological order and demonstrates how they typify each stage of his development as an artist. This chapter does a fine job of showing how Tiepolo’s work either followed or strayed from the artistic trends of his day. Illustrated with several plates.

Morassi, Antonio. G. B. Tiepolo: His Life and Work. New York: Phaidon Press, 1955. A standard biography, providing details of Tiepolo’s life along with descriptions and critical assessments of the works from each period in his life. Beautifully illustrated with black-and-white and color plates, the book covers most of Tiepolo’s works.