(Venice 1696-Madrid 1770)
Giambattista or Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter and considered the last great painter of the Baroque. He was the son of a merchant, who, upon his death, left his family in a difficult economic situation. Although he was a disciple of Gregorio Lazzarini, he owed his artistic training to the study of the works of Sebastiano Ricci, Piazzeta, and Veronese.
The canvases The Crossing of the Red Sea, Age and Death, and The Sacrifice of Isaac, created when he was around nineteen years old, are among his earliest works. In 1719, he married Cecilia Guardi, sister of painters Antonio, Francesco, and Niccolo Guardi, with whom he had nine children, two of whom, Giandomenico and Lorenzo, would also become painters.
Equally gifted for fresco painting as for easel painting, and aided by an astonishing work capacity and ease of execution, he cultivated a thematic repertoire of biblical, mythological, and commemorative character. His first important work - the decorative cycle of the archiepiscopal palace of Udine (1727-1728) - is composed of biblical narratives, which, while revealing some perspective artifices of Veronese and the chromatic clarity of Ricci and Pitton, the formation of the figures - as well as their sensual naturalism - and the compositional complexity of the same are contributions unique to the artist.
From the Udine experience, the art of Tiepolo solidified in an endless succession of works as esteemed as the frescoes of the Dugnani Palace in Milan (1731), The Triumph of Flora (1743, San Francisco Museum), The Banquet of Cleopatra (1743, San Francisco Museum), The Banquet of Cleopatra (1744, Melbourne Museum), frescoes of the Labia Palace, Venice (1747-1750).
His fame transcended Italian borders, and in 1750 he went with his sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo to Würzburg, where he remained until 1753, creating the decoration for the sumptuous residence of Prince-Bishop C. Ph von Greffenclau, which architect J.B Neumann was finishing constructing. This decoration, Investiture of Bishop Aroldo, 1752; Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1752; Adoration of the Magi, currently in the Munich Pinakothek) represented the enrichment of the Venetian master's forms with the new stylistic postulates of European Rococo.
In 1757, he began the decoration of the Valmarana villa alongside his son Giandomenico. In it, adopting the more worldly and courtly themes of Germanic art, he created, through the most capricious colors, a theatrical universe of great sensuality and beauty, which constitutes his true contribution to 18th-century painting.
In 1761, arrangements began for him to decorate the new royal palace in Madrid. His stay in Spain was marred by the rivalry with A.R Mengs and the misunderstanding his work faced from official circles.
Despite his advanced age, the painter retained the artistic vigor of his best times, as evidenced by his splendid frescoes in the royal palace: The Glory of Spain, The Apotheosis of the Spanish Monarchy, and The Triumph of Aeneas.
On the other hand, he was also commissioned to decorate the apse of the church of San Ildefonso in Aranjuez, which death prevented him from completing.
With Tiepolo, whose grace and chromatic liveliness influenced Goya's festive designs for tapestries, the lavish elegance of Rococo comes to a close, as does the entire tradition of Venetian mural painting.
Giambattista or Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter and considered the last great painter of the Baroque. He was the son of a merchant, who, upon his death, left his family in a difficult economic situation. Although he was a disciple of Gregorio Lazzarini, he owed his artistic training to the study of the works of Sebastiano Ricci, Piazzeta, and Veronese.
The canvases The Crossing of the Red Sea, Age and Death, and The Sacrifice of Isaac, created when he was around nineteen years old, are among his earliest works. In 1719, he married Cecilia Guardi, sister of painters Antonio, Francesco, and Niccolo Guardi, with whom he had nine children, two of whom, Giandomenico and Lorenzo, would also become painters.
Equally gifted for fresco painting as for easel painting, and aided by an astonishing work capacity and ease of execution, he cultivated a thematic repertoire of biblical, mythological, and commemorative character. His first important work - the decorative cycle of the archiepiscopal palace of Udine (1727-1728) - is composed of biblical narratives, which, while revealing some perspective artifices of Veronese and the chromatic clarity of Ricci and Pitton, the formation of the figures - as well as their sensual naturalism - and the compositional complexity of the same are contributions unique to the artist.
From the Udine experience, the art of Tiepolo solidified in an endless succession of works as esteemed as the frescoes of the Dugnani Palace in Milan (1731), The Triumph of Flora (1743, San Francisco Museum), The Banquet of Cleopatra (1743, San Francisco Museum), The Banquet of Cleopatra (1744, Melbourne Museum), frescoes of the Labia Palace, Venice (1747-1750).
His fame transcended Italian borders, and in 1750 he went with his sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo to Würzburg, where he remained until 1753, creating the decoration for the sumptuous residence of Prince-Bishop C. Ph von Greffenclau, which architect J.B Neumann was finishing constructing. This decoration, Investiture of Bishop Aroldo, 1752; Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1752; Adoration of the Magi, currently in the Munich Pinakothek) represented the enrichment of the Venetian master's forms with the new stylistic postulates of European Rococo.
In 1757, he began the decoration of the Valmarana villa alongside his son Giandomenico. In it, adopting the more worldly and courtly themes of Germanic art, he created, through the most capricious colors, a theatrical universe of great sensuality and beauty, which constitutes his true contribution to 18th-century painting.
In 1761, arrangements began for him to decorate the new royal palace in Madrid. His stay in Spain was marred by the rivalry with A.R Mengs and the misunderstanding his work faced from official circles.
Despite his advanced age, the painter retained the artistic vigor of his best times, as evidenced by his splendid frescoes in the royal palace: The Glory of Spain, The Apotheosis of the Spanish Monarchy, and The Triumph of Aeneas.
On the other hand, he was also commissioned to decorate the apse of the church of San Ildefonso in Aranjuez, which death prevented him from completing.
With Tiepolo, whose grace and chromatic liveliness influenced Goya's festive designs for tapestries, the lavish elegance of Rococo comes to a close, as does the entire tradition of Venetian mural painting.
