GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO

:''See also Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (or Giandomenico Tiepolo); or Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo, both sons of Giovanni Battista.''
'Giovanni Battista Tiepolo', also known as 'Gianbattista' or 'Giambattista Tiepolo' (March 5, 1696 - March 27, 1770) was an Venetian painter and printmaker, considered among the last "Grand Manner" fresco painters from the Venetian republic.
''Death of Hyacinth''.

''Apotheosis of Spain'' in Royal Palace of Madrid.


Contents
Biography
Early life (1696-1726)
Early mature work (1726-50)
Return to Venice and Veneto (1753-1770)
Frescoes for the Royal Palace in Madrid
Critical assessment and legacy
List of works
Paintings before 1740
Works from 1740-1750
Works after 1750
Further reading
External links

Biography


Early life (1696-1726)

Giambattist Tiepolo was born in Venice, the last of six children of sea-captain, Domenico Tiepolo and his wife, Orsetta. While the Tiepolo surname belongs to a patrician family, Giambattista's father did not claim noble lineage. The future artist was baptised in his parish church (S. Pietro di Castello) as ''Giovanni Battista'', in honour of his godfather, a Venetian nobleman called Giovanni Battista Dorià. His father Domenico died a year after his birth, leaving Orsetta in difficult financial circumstances.
Giambattista was initially a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini, but the influences from elder contemporaries such as Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta are stronger in his work. At 19 years of age, Tiepolo completed his first major commission, the ''Sacrifice of Isaac'' (now in the Accademia). He left Lazzarini studio in 1717, and was received into the Fraglia guild of painters.
In 1719, Tiepolo married Maria Cecilia Guardi, sister of two contemporary Venetian painters Francesco and Giovanni Antonio Guardi. Together, Tiepolo and his wife had nine children. Four daughters and three sons survived childhood. Two sons, Domenico and Lorenzo, painted with him as his assistants and achieved some independent recognition. His third son became a priest.
Early mature work (1726-50)

A patrician from the Friulan town of Udine, Dionisio Delfino, commissioned from the young Tiepolo the fresco decoration of the chapel and palace (1726-1728). It was an almost revolutionary he decorative Italian Rococo movement of the 18th century. Tiepolo's first masterpieces in Venice were a cycle of enormous canvases painted to decorate a large reception room of Ca' Dolfin, Venice (ca. 1726–1729), depicting ancient battles and triumph.
He was soon in high demand, which he matched with an astounding prolificity. He painted canvases for churches such as that of Verolanuova (1735-40), for the Scuola dei Carmini (1740-47), and the Scalzi 1743-1744), a ceiling for the Palazzi Archinto and Casati-Dugnani in Milan (1731), the Colleoni Chapel in Bergamo (1732-1733), a ceiling for the Gesuati (Santa Maria del Rosario) in Venice of ''St. Dominic Instituting the Rosary'' (1737-39), Palazzo Clerici, Milan (1740), decorations for Villa Cordellini at Montecchio Maggiore (1743-1744) and for the ballroom of the Palazzo Labia, now a television studio in Venice, showing the ''Story of Cleopatra'' (1745-1750).
===Tiepolo frescoes the Würzburg Residenz (1750-53)===
By 1750, Tiepolo's reputation was firmly established throughout Europe, and accompanied by his son Giandomenico, he traveled to Würzburg at the call of Prince Bishop Karl Philipp von Greiffenklau in 1750, where he resided for three years and executed magnificent ceiling paintings in the New Residenz palace (completed 1744). His painting for the grandiose Neumann-designed entrance staircase (''Treppenhaus'') is the most massive ceiling fresco in the world at 7287 square feet (677 m²), and was completed in collaboration with his sons, Giandomenico and Lorenzo. His ''Allegory of the Planets and Continents'' depicts Apollo, embarking on his daily course; deities around him symbolize the planets; allegorical figures (on the cornice) represent the four continents, notably including America. He also frescoed the Kaisersaal salon.
Return to Venice and Veneto (1753-1770)

He then returned to Venice in 1753, Tiepolo was now richly in demand locally and abroad, where he was elected President of the Academy of Padua. He now completed theatrical frescoes for churches; the ''Triumph of Faith'' for the Chiesa della Pietà; panel frescos for Ca' Rezzonico (which now also holds his ceiling fresco from the Palazzo Barbarigo); and paintings for patrician villas in the Venetian countryside, such as Villa Valmarana (Vicenza) and a large panegyric ceiling for the now nearly vacant Villa Pisani in Stra.
In celebrated frescoes at the Palazzo Labia, he depicted two frescoes on the life of Cleopatra: ''Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra''[1]and ''Banquet of Cleopatra'',[2]as well as a central ceiling fresco depicts ''Triumph of Bellerophon over Time''. He collaborated with an expert in perspective, Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna. Colonna who also designed sets for opera highlights the increasing tendency towards composition as a staged fiction in his frescoes. The architecture of the''Banquet'' fresco also recalls Veronese's ''Wedding at Cannae''
Frescoes for the Royal Palace in Madrid

In 1761, Charles III commissioned from the painter a large ceiling fresco to decorate the throne room of the royal palace of Madrid. The panegyric theme is the ''Apotheosis of Spain''. In Spain, he incurred the jealousy and the bitter opposition of Anton Raphael Mengs.
Tiepolo died in Madrid on March 27, 1770.
After his death, the rise of stern Neoclassicism and the post-revolutionary decline of royal absolutism led to the slow decline of the Tiepolo style, but had failed to dent his impact on artistic progress. By 1772 Tiepolo was sufficiently famous to be documented as painter to Doge Giovanni Cornaro, in charge of the decoration of Palazzo Mocenigo a San Polo.

Critical assessment and legacy


The ''Allegory of the Planets and Continents'' at New Residenz.

In his most fluid elaborations, Tiepolo has closest affinity to Ricci, Piazzetta, and Federico Bencovich. He is a shadowless fresco artist, a sunnier rococo Pietro da Cortona. His sumptuous historical set-pieces are enveloped in a regal luminosity. He is principally known for his fresco work, particularly his panegyric ceilings. These followed the Baroque tradition begun a century before by Pietro da Cortona, converting roof to painted sky, elevating petty aristocrats to divine status, and allowing for vast compositions that merged with the delicate ornamentation of the stucco frames. Like Luca Giordano, his palette was muted, almost water-color like. Like Giordano, he was prolific. With an unrivaled ''Sprezzatura'', he painted worlds of fresco, and some such as the walls of Villa Valmarana in Vicenza, not only peer into the mythologic scenes, but are meant to relocate viewers into their midst. The earliest example of this is perhaps his canvases in the Ca' Dolfin, which allowed Tiepolo to introduce exuberant costumes, classical sculpture, and action that appears to spill from the frames into the room. Originally set into recesses, they were surrounded with frescoed frames.
While his painting is infused with the Venetian spirit, his luminosity is not seen in the previous masters; however, Tiepolo is considered the last "Olympian" painter of the Venetian Republic. Like Titian before him, Tiepolo was an international star, treasured by royalty far afield for his ability to depict glory in fresco.
His children developed similar, but distinctive styles.
List of works


★ ''The Institution of the Rosary'' (1737-39).


★ Self portrait at Würzburg, with Giandomenico beside him [3][4].

★ Collecting Mana- National Museum of Serbia.
Paintings before 1740

Work Date Location Link
''The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew''1722San Stae, Venice
''The Rape of Europa''c. 1725Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
''Allegory of the Power of Eloquence''c. 1725Courtauld Institute, Modello for Palazzo Sandi, Venice
Frescoes1726Episcopal palace, Udine
''Perseus & Andromeda''1730Frick Museum
''Education of the Virgin''1732S. Maria della Consolazione (Fava), Venice
''Angel rescuing Hagar''1732Scuola di San Rocco, Venice
''John the Baptist preaching''1732-1733Cappella Colleoni, Bergamo
''Beheading of John the Baptist''1732-1733Cappella Colleoni, Bergamo
''Scourge of the Serpents''1732-1735Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
''Joseph receiving ring from pharoah''1732-1735Dulwich Picture Gallery
''Triumph of Zephyr and Flora''1734-1735Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
''Jupiter and Danaë''1736Universitet Konsthistoriska Institutionen, Stockholm
''Pope St Clement Adoring the Trinity''1737-1738Alte Pinakothek, Munich
''Institution of the Rosary''1737-1739Santa Maria del Rosario (Gesuati), Venice
''Christ Carrying the Cross''1737-1738Sant'Alvise, Venice
''The Madonna of Mount Carmel''1730sPinacoteca di Brera, Milan
''Virgin with Six Saints''1737-1740Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Works from 1740-1750

Work Date Location Link
''The Virgin Appearing to St Philip Neri''1740Museo Diocesano, Camerino
''The Gathering of Manna''1740-1742Parrocchiale, Verolanuova
''The Sacrifice of Melchizedek''1740-1742Parrocchiale, Verolanuova
''Virtue and Nobility putting Ignorance to Flight''1743Dulwich Picture Gallery(modello for Villa Cordellina in Montecchio Maggiore)
''The Banquet of Cleopatra''1743-1744National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
''Worshippers''1743-1745Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
''Apollo and Daphne''1744-1745Musée du Louvre, Paris
''Discovery of the True Cross''c. 1745Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Frescoes of the story of Cleopatra1746Palazzo Labia, Venice
''The Virgin Appearing to Dominican Saints''1747-1748Santa Maria del Rosario (Gesuati), Venice
''Last Communion of St Lucy''1747-1748Santi Apostoli, Venice
''St James the Greater Conquering the Moors''1749-1750Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Works after 1750

Work Date Location Link
Frescoes1751-1753Residenz, Wurzburg
''Collecting Mana''c.1751National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade
''Allegory of Planets and Continents''1752Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
''The Death of Hyacinth''1752-53Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid
''Adoration of the Magi''1753Alte Pinakothek, Munich
''Coronation of the Virgin''1754Kimbell Art Museum, Dallas (modelo for Ospedale della Pietà)
''An Allegory with Venus and Time''1754-58National Gallery, London
Frescoes from Roman mythology1757Villa Valmarana, Vicenza
''A Seated Man and a Girl with a Pitcher''c. 1755National Gallery, London
''The Theological Virtues''c. 1755Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
''The Martyrdom of St Agathac. 1756Staatliche Museen, Berlin
''Allegory of Merit Accompanied by Nobility and Virtue''1757-58Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
''The Vision of St Anne''1759Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
''Madonna of the Goldfinch''c. 1760National Gallery of Art, Washington
''Woman with a Parrot''1760-61Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
''Apotheosis of the Pisani Family''1761-62Villa Pisani, Stra
''San Carlo Borromeo''1767-1769Cincinnati Art Museum
''The Immaculate Conception''1767-1769Museo del Prado, Madrid
''Glory of Spain''1762-1766Throne Room of Royal Palace of Madrid
''The Apotheosis of the Spanish Monarchy''1762-1766Queen's Antechamber, Palacio Real, Madrid
''Venus and Vulcan''1762-1766Palacio Real, Madrid>

Further reading


Giambattista Tiepolo, , William L., Barcham, Thames and Hudson, 1992, ISBN 0-500-08054-2
The etchings of the Tiepolos, , Aldo, Rizzi, Electa, 1971, ISBN 0714814997

Aldo Rizzi, ''Il Tiepolo all'Arcivescovado di Udine'', Milano 1965.

Aldo Rizzi, ''Tiepolo a Udine'', Milano 1969.

Aldo Rizzi, ''le acqueforti dei Tiepolo'', Milano, 1970.

Aldo Rizzi, ''La grafica del Tiepolo: le acqueforti'', Milano 1971.

Aldo Rizzi, ''La mostra del Tiepolo'', Milano 1971.

Aldo Rizzi, ''Giambattista Tiepolo'', Milano 1990.

Aldo Rizzi, ''I Tiepolo a Udine'', Milano 1996.

External links



Many works by Tiepolo

Works in Udine

Short biography

Illustrated biography and discussion of famous works

New Yorker Cartoon

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