Giambattista Tiepolo – Wurtzburg Residence – Autoportrait

Giambattista Tiepolo
The painter (Venice 1696, Madrid 1770) was one of the greatest and most famous artists of the eighteenth century. His services were requested everywhere, by the Church, by the highest nobility of the time, by the most important European Courts. His work ranged from Palazzo dell’Arcivescovado in Udine to the paintings for the Scuola dei Carmini in Venice, from the Amori di Antonio e Cleopatra in Palazzo Labia to the Corsa del Carro del Sole in Palazzo Clerici in Milan; frescoes, altarpieces, mythological and historical canvasses followed one another uninterruptedly in an endless creativity. In 1750 Tiepolo was called to Wurzburg, together with his sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo, who by then were working full-time with him, to decorate the Kaisersaal and the Stairway of Honour of the Residence of the Prince-Bishop Carl Philipp von Greiffenklan with frescoes celebrating the achievements of the Emperor Frederck Redbeard (Barbarossa). Immediately after Wurzburg, the Valmarana family ordered him a cycle of frescoes for both their town palace, unfortunately destroyed during the war, and for their Summer Residence in San Bastiano. In 1762, accompanied by his two sons, Tiepolo left for Madrid where, on behalf of King Charles III, he decorated three halls of the Royal Palace – including the Throne’s Hall – where he died eight years later.

Giandomenico Tiepolo – Wurtzburg Residence- Giambattista Tiepolo

Giandomenico Tiepolo
Son of Giambattista and Cecilia Guardi (sister of the well-known painters Antonio and Francesco) was born in Venice in 1727 where he dies in 1804. Pupil of his father, he worked with him on his major frescoes succeeding nevertheless to build his own visual and thematic style. His main masterpiece, where his personality mostly emerges, are undoubtfully the Villa Valmarana’s frescoes where he portraits with acute irony, the Venetian society of his time. He will eventually repaint some of the Villa’s subjects, notably Il Mondo novo, for his villa in Zianigo, where he retired; the frescoes are now exposed in the Cà Rezzonico