Giambattista tiepolo biography of martin

  • Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, or Giambattista Tiepolo,
  • Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was an Italian

    • Giambattista Tiepolo ()
    St. Martin of Tours

    18th century
    Venetian School
    Ca' Rezzonico, Venice, Italy

    The museum's label identifies this bishop with his mitre and crozier as St. Martin of Tours. Martin was indeed a bishop. He is most often pictured sharing his cloak with a pauper, but the Veneto remembers him pre-eminently as an opponent of Arianism.

    The possibility may be considered that this is not Martin of Tours at all. Neither in history nor in legend is he said to have been martyred, yet his right arm holds a palm branch, the symbol of martyrdom.

    The acolyte returning the viewer's gaze is unidentified. Could he be a relative of the donor?

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    Photographed at the Ca' Rezzonico by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

    Renaissance + Baroque

    Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: The Triumph of Hercules,

    Italian, –

    Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
    Italian, –
    The Triumph of Hercules,
    oil on canvas, 36 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. (93 x 70 cm)
    Currier Funds,

    Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
    Italian, –
    The Triumph of Hercules,
    oil on canvas, 36 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. (93 x 70 cm)
    Currier Funds,

    The Currier Museum has a rich collection of European painting and sculpture from the 14th to the 17th centuries, representing the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. Gerini’s altarpiece is exceptional for being in near perfect state of preservation and demonstrates how early Renaissance artists emphasized the spiritual holiness of Christ and the Virgin. Just over a century later, artistic goals had changed. Now painters like Joos van Cleve and sculptors like Benedetto da Maiano accentuated the human qualities of holy figures. Heroic figures from ancient Greece and Rome that were being unearthed in the Renaissance profoundly influenced artists like Montorsoli and Cosini, both assistants to Michelangelo.

    In Italy and Spain, 17th-century Baroque art continued to be influenced by religion, but artists gave their works greater emotion and drama. Painters like Mattia Preti and Matthias Stom focused on the most dramatic, consequential, and climatic moment of the narrative. The powerful gestures and theatrical lighting enhance the emotive power of their message of faith and the promise of eternal life.

    In much of northern Europe, Protestantism was the dominant religion in the 17th century and art in those regions took a different course. When churches were converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, their art and decorations were stripped away. In general, explicit paintings of Christ and the Virgin were elided. Art in the Netherlands flourished to an unprecedented degree, with the vast majority of collectors being individuals; even modest household had a few paintings. These new collectors sought

    Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo: The Real Otherworldliness of Two Rococo Masters

    This year marks years since the death of rococo master Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Tiepolo (–), arguably the most celebrated artist of 18th-century Europe. In his honour, this post considers the work of not just the elder Tiepolo, but also that of his son Giovanni Domenico (Giandomenico; –), through whom the changing tides of the 18th century most clearly come into focus. Between Baroque and Neo-classicism, this was a fascinating moment in the use and status of art as the Western world entered a period of intellectual, social, and political upheaval, that would culminate with the French Revolution in and the fall of the Venetian Republic not a decade later.

    Originating from Venice, the Tiepolos were critical in bringing the lagunar town back into artistic prominence during the 18th century. In its golden age two centuries earlier, Venice had been a major artistic centre, but its importance had since fallen off as artists like Caravaggio and the Carracci brothers shifted the focus to central Italy, especially Rome. In the 18th century, the age of the Grand Tour, artists like Canaletto, with his famous Vedute or views of the city, capitalized on the tourist market and helped revive Venice as an important artistic centre, despite the city’s waning political significance. This vedute tradition was carried on in the next generation by Francesco Guardi (–), who traded Canaletto’s prized accuracy for the freedom of imagination. However, it was the Tiepolos, Giambattista in particular, who transformed the city’s interiors, painting such massive dramatic scenes like the Capture of Carthage, his first masterpiece, executed in –29 as part of the scenes of Roman history that decorated the Ca'Dolfin (the house of the Dolfin family). In fact, Giambattista married into the artistic family of Francesco Guardi when he wed the latter’s sister Cecilia (/3-ca. ; their brothe

    Name of the Artist / Artwork:

    Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

    Art Period:

    Neoclassic Art in Italy

    Synthetic Chronology:

    In , Tiepolo worked on the frescoes for the stairwell and the rooms on the first floor, of the Patriarchal Palace (now the Archiepiscopal Palace) in Udine. This project had been commissioned by Dionisio Dolfin (), a member of a Venetian family.
    In the centre of the stairwell ceiling, Tiepolo frescoed the Fall of the Rebel Angels, which he surrounded with eight scenes from the book of Genesis. He then went on to decorate the Gallery, the Red Room and the Throne Room.
    The Gallery features scenes from the lives of the Old Testament patriarchs, inspired by the book of Genesis. The three main episodes, The Three Angels appearing to Abraham, Rachel Hiding the Idols from her Father Labanand The Angel appearing to Sarah are each surrounded by a trompe-l'oeil frame. They are hung alternately with portraits of prophetesses, which create the illusion of being statues in niches along the walls. On the ceiling, a depiction of The Sacrifice of Isaac occupies centre position, flanked by smaller oval compartments portraying Hagar in the Wilderness and Jacob's Dream.
    Tiepolo was aided in the realization of this famous ensemble by Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna (), with whom he continued to work closely during the years that followed.
    On the ceiling of the Red Room, Tiepolo painted The Judgement of Solomon, surrounded by portraits of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel - a theme appropriate to a room used both as a civil and ecclesiastical tribunal.
    The ambitious pictorial program of the overall decoration was probably conceived by Dionisio Dolfin himself, with the help of his theological advisers, including Francesco Florio, his vicar-general. The subjects chosen for the pictures were intended to reinforce the legitimacy of the ruling patriarchy, which at that time found itself at the centre of a fierce politico-ecclesiastical struggle betwee