Gillian Knows Best Tiepolo Guide to Venice
20 addresses + my advice for where to see the best Tiepolo skies.
When I lived in Rome I rarely let a week pass without a visit to a Caravaggio painting. In my new home in Venice I am missing my time with those chiaroscuro masterpieces. My knowledge of the Venetian masters is weak. To remedy that last month I set myself a goal to see as many of the accessible1 works of Giambattista Tiepolo in Venice as I could. I made a schedule and every few days I planned my errands around the Rococo master’s blues and pinks and yellows.
Who was Tiepolo?
Tiepolo is widely considered one of the greatest painters of eighteenth-century Europe. Born in Venice in 1696 he was known by a couple of different names; Giambattista, which is a contraction of Giovanni Battista and his name in Veneziano, Zuane Batista. To add to the confusion his son Domenico was also an accomplished artist. Giambattista’s first works were in Venice at the Chiesa degli Scalzi (you can see those at the Galleria Accademia now) and in the Palazzo Sandi. As his fame grew he worked on terraferma painting in Palladian villas in Vicenza and palazzi in Udine and Milan. In the late 1700s he was commissioned by noble families in Germany, Russia, Sweden, and Spain to decorate their palaces. Tiepolo left Venice for Madrid in 1761 to paint the Apotheosis of Spain in the Royal Palace and never returned. He died in Spain in 1762.
Seeing all of the Tiepolo paintings in Venice might be a bit ambitious during one trip. My advice is to pick a few in different parts of town and create your own checklist.
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