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Italian Rococo Era Painter, 1696-1770
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was born in Venice on March 5, 1696. His father, who was part owner of a ship, died when Tiepolo was scarcely a year old, but the family was left in comfortable circumstances. As a youth, he was apprenticed to Gregorio Lazzarini, a mediocre but fashionable painter known for his elaborately theatrical, rather grandiose compositions.
Tiepolo soon evolved a more spirited style of his own. By the time he was 20, he had exhibited his work independently, and won plaudits, at an exhibition held at the church of S. Rocco. The next year he became a member of the Fraglia, or painters guild. In 1719 he married Cecilia Guardi, whose brother Francesco was to become famous as a painter of the Venetian scene. They had nine children, among them Giovanni Domenico and Lorenzo Baldassare, who were also painters.
In the 1720s Tiepolo carried out many large-scale commissions on the northern Italian mainland. Of these the most important is the cycle of Old Testament scenes done for the patriarch of Aquileia, Daniele Dolfin, in the new Archbishop Palace at Udine. Here Tiepolo abandoned the dark hues that had characterized his early style and turned instead to the bright, sparkling colors that were to make him famous.
The Banquet of Cleopatra
1746-47 Fresco Palazzo Labia, Venice For the face of Anthony Tiepolo fell back on a type of portrait which he often used in other contexts, e. g. for the god of war, Mars. This section lets us see the detailed rendering of the ornamental decoration on the armor and helmet, thus demonstrating the importance Tiepolo assigned to such apparently insignificant details.Artist:TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista Title: The Banquet of Cleopatra (detail) Painted in 1701-1750 , Italian - - painting : historical
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