Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Italian, 1692 - 1770

BiographyGiovanni Battista Tiepolo came from a wealthy family. His father Domenico di Giovanni Tiepolo, a ship's captain, died in 1697, leaving six children from his marriage to Orsola Jugali. Tiepolo was enrolled in the Venetian painters' guild in 1717, and in 1719 he married Cecilia Guardi, sister of the painter Francesco Guardi. Nine children were born of this union: five sons, of whom two (Giovanni Domenico and Lorenzo) became artists, and four daughters. Tiepolo trained under Gregorio Lazzarini, who enjoyed a considerable reputation in Italy at this time, but the young artist seems to have preferred to model his early work on that of Paolo Caliari and the more delicate Giambattista Piazzetta, before developing a mature style of his own. Together, Tiepolo and Guardi breathed new life into the Venetian school in the 18th century; however the jealousy and intrigues of Anton Raphael Mengs seem to have cast a shadow over the last years of Tiepolo's life.Tiepolo's work shows that he had a powerfully creative imagination. For the first 20 or so years of his career, he worked in Venice and the Veneto region. His earliest works were probably the frescoes he painted for the chapel of St Theresa in the church of the Scalzi in Venice (c. 1720). In 1726 he decorated the chapel of the Holy Sacrament in Udine Cathedral, and also worked in the archbishop's palace. In 1731 he was in Milan, working in Palazzo Archinto and Palazzo Arcugnani. In 1733 he went to Bergamo, where he painted the ceiling of the Colleoni Chapel with Scenes from the Life of St John, Bishop of the City and Four Virtues, and did other paintings for both the chapel and cathedral. He frescoed several rooms of Villa Valmarana at San Sebastiano, near Vicenza, with subjects from the Iliad, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. He was helped in this task by his son Giovanni Domenico, then aged 10, and by his friend and assistant, the sculptor Mingozzi Colonna. In 1737 he was working near Vienna. Of his Venetian works, the following frescoes are particularly deserving of mention: Institution of the Rosary (1737-1739, church of the Jesuits); Scenes from the Story of Anthony and Cleopatra (Palazzo Labia); Chariot of Venus (Palazzo Rezzonico); the ceiling of Palazzo Matinengo; the ceiling of the chapel of St Theresa; and the Triumph of Faith (1743-1744, chapel of S Maria della Pietà). His oil paintings include: Charlatan and Minuet (Palazzo Papadopoli); Neptune Offering Venus the Treasures of the Sea (Doges' Palace); Herod (Palazzo Crotta); Virgin and Child in Glory and Saints and Virtues (Scuola del Carmine); St Paul before the Tyrant and St John Nepomuk (church of S Paola); Way of the Cross, Jesus Crowned with Thorns and Flagellation (chapel of St Aloysius); Virgin and Child with Three Dominicans (church of the Gesuiti); St Anne and the Virgin (church of the Fava); and the Martyrdom of St Bartholomew (church of S Eustachio).In 1740 Tiepolo went to work in Milan, where his works included the Story of Esther (Palazzo Dugnani) and Chariot of the Sun (Palazzo Clerici). In 1750 he was commissioned to decorate the archbishop's palace in Würzburg, where he spent three years producing a series that is regarded as his masterpiece: Triumph of the Arts. He painted an Allegory of the Four Parts of the World (for the staircase), Story of Frederick Barbarossa and Apollo's Chariot (for the ceiling of the Kaisersaal), Two Fêtes Galantes (for the Small Hall), an Assumption (for the chapel), and the altarpiece Fall of the Rebel Angels.From 1753 to 1761 Tiepolo was again employed in his native city, depicting the pomp and circumstance of the Venetian republic and its great families. In 1762 he went to Madrid with his sons Giovanni Domenico and Lorenzo, on the invitation of Charles III, to decorate the royal palace with fresco paintings. His works at the Escorial include: Vulcan's Forge (in the Garden Room); an Allegorical Figure of Spain (on the ceiling of the Antechamber); and Allegorical Figures of the Spanish Provinces (on the ceiling of the Great Hall). He also painted frescoes and an altarpiece for the palace of Aranjuez, and frescoes for the convent and the orangery.Other works of note by Tiepolo include: frescoes for Villa Loschi del Ferme in Biron, near Vicenza; a Triumph of Venus (ceiling) and Story of Iphigenia (frescoes) for Palazzo Widmann alla Riscossa in Mira (Veneto); frescoes for Villa Cordellina in Montechin Maggiore, near Vienna; a Martyrdom of St Agatha, Holy Family and an altar painting of St John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness for the church of St Anthony in Padua; an altar painting of St Martin Praying before King Oswald for the church of S Martino in Padua; a fresco painting of St Luke for the church of S Lucia in Padua; an Assumption of the Virgin and Saints for the parish church of Valle Senona in Rovetto; frescoes for the palace of St Sebastian in Spain; an Apotheosis of the Pisani Family for Palazzo Pizzani in Stra (Veneto); paintings and frescoes for Udine Cathedral (1726); a Portrait of the Patriarch of Aquileia (ceiling of the Throne Room), Story of Jacob and the Sacrifice of Isaac (Gallery) and Judgement of Solomon (Sala Rossa) for the archbishop's palace in Udine (1759); frescoes for the church of the Madonna della Purità in Udine; Mythological Scenes for the ceiling of Palazzo Canossa in Verona (1761); Scenes from the Story of the Maccabees for the church of S Sebastiano in Verona; Two Apostles for the church of S Stefano in Vicenza; Two Apostles for Palazzo Monza at S Lucia in Vicenza; Family Portraits (monochrome) for Palazzo Colleoni in Vicenza; frescoes for Palazzo Valmarana in Vicenza (1757); and the Wall of St Anthony for the ceiling of the parish church at Mirana.When creating these works, Tiepolo generally began by producing an oil sketch, sometimes two, which explains why his canvases are so numerous. He also produced an abundance of small genre paintings and carnival scenes, and made many drawings. He was also a skilled etcher, and in this aspect of his work, particularly in his Capriccios and Fantasies, we glimpse a more mysterious side to his personality.A great admiration for Paolo Veronese is evident in his work. We see this particularly in his decoration of the Ballroom of the Palazzo Labia, the simulated architecture of which was created by Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna. Tiepolo revolutionised fashions in interior decoration with the bold dynamism of his compositions and the luminosity of the skies which open up behind his figures.Of the collective exhibitions in which Tiepolo has been featured in recent years, the following are notable: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his Sons Domenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo from the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, a Württemberg Private Collection, and the Martin von Wagner Museum (Zeichnungen von Giambattista Tiepolo, Domenico und Lorenzo Tiepolo aus der Graphischen Sammlung der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, aus Württembergischem Privatbesitz und dem Martin von Wagner Museum der Universität Würzburg) at the Stuttgarter Galerieverein in Stuttgart, 1970; Rare Etchings by Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, 1972; Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) and Workshop (Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) und sein Atelier: Zeichnungen und Radierungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinet) at the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, 1996; Settecento, Century of Tiepolo: 18th-century Italian Paintings from French Public Collections (Settecento, le Siècle de Tiepolo: Peintures Italiennes du XVIIIe Siècle Exposées dans les Collections Publiques Françaises) at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyons, 2000; and The Tiepolos as Painters and Engravers (Les Tiepolo Peintres et Graveurs: Giambattista, Giandomenico, Lorenzo) at the Cabinet des Estampes of the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, 2001. Solo exhibitions of Tiepolo's work have included: Giambattista Tiepolo: Drawings from the Museums of Trieste (Giambattista Tiepolo: Disegni dai Civici Musei di Storia e Arte di Trieste) at the Civico Museo Sartorio in Trieste, 1988; Giambattista Tiepolo at the Museo del Settecento Veneziano Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, 1996, which subsequently travelled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and a retrospective exhibition at the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris, 1998.

"TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista, or Giambattista." In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/benezit/B00182841 (accessed April 16, 2012).

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