G iambattista T iepolo
Venice 1696 - Madrid 1770
He learned his craft in the studio of Gregorio Lazzarini (1655-1730). His early work shows the influence of
Piazzetta (1682-1754) and later Paolo Veronese (1521-1588) to whom he was led by his elder contemporary,
Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734). His own highly personal style soon developed and by 1717 he was received into
the Fraglia dei Pittori (Painters Guild). In 1719 he married Francesco Guardi’s sister, Cecilia, who bore him
nine children including Domenico and Lorenzo who became his close assistants. He was the greatest artist of the
eighteenth century and was active not only in his native Venice but throughout Northern Italy: at Udine, 1726;
Milan, 1731; Bergamo, 1731-32 and elsewhere. He carried out many important commissions for prestigious
patrons, the two most famous being from outside his native country. From 1750-53 he went to Germany with
both sons to decorate the Kaisersaal in the Wurzburg residence of the Prince-Bishop Karl Phillip von Greiffenklau.
Returning to Venice in 1755 he was elected first President of the new Venetian Academy of Painting. In 1762,
at the invitation of King Charles III of Spain, again accompanied by his sons, he went to Madrid and decorated
three ceilings in the newly-built royal palace. He died in Madrid in 1770. One of the greatest draughtsmen of
his time and also an excellent engraver, his works had a tremendous influence on artists throughout the century.
10. A standing man seen from behind
Pen and brown ink, grey wash
195 x 105 mm
Provenance:
Venice, private collection; Florence, private collection.
This study is a fine example of Giambattista’s so called caricatures of people in everyday life. It is part of a very
large series that includes more than three hundred drawings. G. Knox 1 divides the series into three. The first are
mainly in the Trieste Museum; the second is constituted by two important collections: one part belonged to the
Valmarana family, for whom Giambattista and his sons worked in 1757, the other, a group of one hundred sheets
known as Sacchetto, from the name of a noble Paduan family. The third group called Tomo Terzo de caricature
(which implies the existence of another two) with its one hundred and six drawings was discovered in Edinburgh
in 1943.
11. A standing man seen from behind, with a sword
Pen and brown ink, grey wash
165 x 105 mm
10.
Provenance:
Venice, private collection; Florence, private collection.
This and the previous drawing were probably part of The Wallraf Album as they share the same shape. The borders
are trimmed with the corners cut and after mounting they are generally embellished with two borderlines, the
first around the drawing itself, the second outer borderline creating a margin around the drawing. As George
Knox 2 noticed some of these caricatures were used by Giandomenico for his series Scenes of Contemporary Life.
( GG )
11.