Van Gogh •
Artist Biographies
•
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo
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Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo |
| Birth Year : |
1727 |
| Death Year : |
1804 |
| Country : |
Italy |
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo was born in Venice. He was the elder son of Giovanni Battista
Tiepolo (1696-1770), and with his brother Lorenzo studied
under his father, the greatest painter of the three and the greatest late Baroque or early Rococo decorative artist in
Europe. The elder Tiepolo, who had
studied with Lazzarini and was influenced by Ricci and Piazzetta, rediscovered Veronese in 1725, and his work from
that date on has an airy, flamboyant and theatrical style, a delicate use of light and color, and an extraordinary
handling of space. Figures on ceiling paintings float in the heavens, and wall paintings have the charm, gaiety, and
fantasy that is the culmination of the Venetian spirit. The elder Tiepolo made small oil sketches for ceiling and wall
paintings, and Domenico (his chief assistant by the time he was thirteen), Lorenzo, and dozens of assistants transferred
these in full-scale to palaces, churches, and homes. Domenico assisted his father not only in Venice but also in
Wurzburg (1751-53), in Vicenza at the Villa Valmarana (1757) and in Madrid in the Royal Palace of Charles II (1762-70).
After the death of his father in Madrid in 1700, Domenico returned to Venice to work in that city as well as in Genoa
and Padua. He continued in the great Venetian decorative tradition, but began to paint more realistically and to
portray his subjects in satiric and grotesque scenes of Venetian life. His color is that of Veronese; his movement
lively. His compositions have an irresistible gaiety and although his style was imitative of his father, it was more
solidly executed.
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