Giovanni Battista Tiepolo summary

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, or Giambattista Tiepolo, (born March 5, 1696, Venice—died March 27, 1770, Madrid), Italian painter and etcher. In the 1730s and ’40s the Venetian clergy and nobility vied for his works. In 1750 he went to Würzburg with his sons and collaborators, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and Lorenzo Tiepolo, to decorate the prince-archbishop’s palace. His Würzburg frescoes and canvases are his most boldly luminous works. In 1762 he escaped the political disequilibrium of the Seven Years’ War by accepting an invitation to paint ceilings in the royal palace in Madrid, again with his sons, his last great undertaking; he remained in Spain until his death. Although he initially used a melancholic chiaroscuro style, his later work is full of bright colour and bold brushwork. His luminous, poetic frescoes both extend the tradition of Baroque ceiling decoration and epitomize Rococo lightness and elegance.