Giambattista Tiepolo

[John Kennedy]

Kind of renounced in his time, yet as I look at his work he was probably one of the greatest fresco painters in his era. He was born and bred Venetian with an ancient, noble Venetian name and baptised in an acient cathedral in Venice. He had three main goals in life, in which he did achieve, which were a good happy family existence, reasonable prosperity and more so than any, he wanted constant employment.

Wow, how awesome is that? This man had a God given talent and he used it well. His detail speaks for itself. Upon his death, though he would not be aware, mostlikely, an artist era had ended.

He was renowned the most famous Venetian painter, well known throughout Europe and the most praised in his own native country.

The depth to his works were music to the ear. One of my favorites is the Allegory of Eloquence in the Palazzo Sandi, Venice. This really comes to life and draws you up into it, and has so many things going on, you have to study it for hours on end.

What's your take on Tiepolo? Have a favorite painting or drawing. Was this man gifted or what?
Like to hear you thoughts.

Check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Tiepolo

John

[ 07. August 2010, 20:56: Message edited by: John Kennedy ]

[Yannu]

Sorry, I saw this post here a little while ago but didn't reply to it because, although I am an admirer of Tiepolo's work, I didn't think I had anything worthwhile to say.

Anyway, since no one has said anything yet I figure I'll throw my two cents in.

I've always loved Tiepolo's work. I'm assuming that most people are interested in his frescoes and oil paintings but personally I am more moved by his pen and wash drawings. I don't really have a favorite but here are a few links I found just now:

http://www.nysun.com/pics/4432.jpg/

http://antiquesandthearts.com/Archiv...4-36Image2.GIF

http://www.pulitzerarts.org/images/p...agePage/61.jpg

http://storage.canalblog.com/53/47/119589/46343387.jpg

The figures in his drawings have such a fluidity to them, but feel totally natural all the same, if that makes any sense.

Fun little fact - I just found out looking at that wiki article that he has the same birthday as me.

Anyway, I hope someone will have something more interesting to add soon.

[John Kennedy]

Yannu,
Sorry for the delay, but I have been quite busy lately. Yes, the drawings by Tiepolo are always amazing in themself. He had a gift for perspective, especially when dealing with figures reaching into the sky and clouds. He usually did drawings and washes for his clients before doing his paintings and frescos. They were called a "modello and/or modelli". Da Canal spoke about his drawings as being much sought after.

He was an admired draughtsman and many of his drawings were published. Scipione Maffei, a antiquarian scholar and engraver, published a book or magizine (don't know which it was) in 1732 titled "Verona Illustrata" of several engravingings, in which included about a dozen of Tiepolos' drawings of Roman statues and busts. Another engraver, Pietro Monaco published more of Tiepolos' work in 1739 of his drawings of saints and sacred subjects, his book or magizine called "Raccolta" ... di pitture di storia sacra. One drawing that comes to mind is St. Francis recieving the stigmatta.

Tiepolo did so much drawing and painting and frescos, I don't know how he had time in his life to do anything else. But what ever he did he did it with great excellence and the colors he used were absolutely perfect for what they were to portray.

He had a lot of compitition during his time which included great artists such as Sebastiano, Piazzetta, Marco Ricci, Canaletto and Pittoni. All were great artists with oils and frescos and I'm sure their drawings were of the same quality.

If your really interested in Tiepollos work and his life you could buy a book that I have by Sir Michael Levy titled Giambattista Tiepolo His Life and Art. It is absolutely worth every penny I paid for it. It can be purchased at Amazon .com for a meer $508.00 for the hard cover new or you can shop around and find a used one for way less money. There is also a paperback version, but may not be as complete. Regardless of which you choose, you won't be dis-satified at all.

Thanks for your interest and response, it is very much appreciated. All the pictures you chose are in my book and so many more, I can't even begin to explain them all.

Blessings - John

[ 24. October 2010, 19:46: Message edited by: John Kennedy ]

[John Kennedy]

I thought I would try and list the pigments that I think Tiepolo used for his palette, based on the colors in his frescos.

Lazurite (Ultra Marine)
Verona Green Earth
Italian Yellow Earth
Lemon Orcher
Ercolano Red
Pozzuoli Red
Venetian Red
Italian Raw Sienna
Italian Burnt Sienna
Italian Brown Ocher
Italian Raw Umber
Italian Burnt Umber
Italian Black (Roman Black)
Bianco di San Giovanni (Lime White)

These colors fit both the warm and cool colors used in his frescos based on the photographs in my book mentioned above.

He may have used additional pigments that were around at the time, but mostlikely in his oil paintings for his modello's (for frescos) and modelli's (for oil paintings), when done in color. Several of his per drawings (prior to his modello's and modelli's) were a pen and ink with a wash, and he used chalk quite often for drawing details to be used in his frescos and paintings.

The Tiepolo palette I have listed above has a lot of the earth colors used in that period- mid 1700's. He may have also used other imported earth colors, but I have no way of knowing what was available at the time in Venice area.
Mostlikely, he may have also picked up other pigments in various places where he was doing his paintings and frescos.

I'm sure he chose colors that would work within the fresco painting peramaters, which are basically the earth colors.

If you have any verifiable information on his palette colors, I would like to see them posted and where you got your information from, or your thoughts on my guess work as to his palette pigment color choices.

Blessings- John

[ 24. October 2010, 19:50: Message edited by: John Kennedy ]

[Marc Kingsland]

He may have used Prussian blue in his oils but it's unlikely to be in his frescos as the colour's not fast in alkalies.

[John Kennedy]

Marc, You are right, and so I deleted the purssian blue. Mostlikely, for his deeper blues he added blue (Lazuite) and black together.

I'm not sure he used all of the reds that I listed, because just one of them could be altered as well with either white or black.

It would seem more likely to carry as few colors, as needed, when making his long trips.

I am trying to narrow down the colors listed that would make up a typical Tiepolo Palette, based on his fresco paintings, pictured in my book.

The clarity of the pictures in my book are quite amazing and from what I can tell it may not have been necessary to have all of the colors which I have listed. He could have been a great colorist and knew how to use the basics ie: red, yellow,blue, black and white, which all colors are made from thru knowledge in mixing of colors.

But, he would have had to of had someone mixing colors as he painted because he would have to be painting constantly, all day, 10 to 12 hours, working on wet plaster.

One thing for certain, whether mixed colors from the basic colors or using the natural earth color palatte, he was by far an amazing artist with an exceptional mind for creativity.

Thanks for the imput.

Blessing- John

[ 24. October 2010, 19:54: Message edited by: John Kennedy ]

[George O'Hanlon]

In fresco painting, especially in the late Medieval and Renaissance periods, it was a common practice to lay an underpainting of black or red, building tonal values with such a color first, and then glazing over this with lazurite (lapis lazuli) in egg or casein tempera on the following day once the plaster has set.

[ 25. October 2010, 15:22: Message edited by: Admin ]

[John Kennedy]

George!! Welcome Back!! Hope your trip was enduring and filled with excitement. I leave tomorrow morning for Missouri to visit my brother and also for some work there.

Yes, that makes sense the black underlayment. I do that myself quite often, but I use black gesso and I also use grey gesso as well. I kind of like to create a black and white photo per-say. The lapis lazuli glaze would give a darker (purssian blue) look with the black undercoating. It is quite possible, however, to mix some black with the lazurite to create a darker blue where no undercoating might be. This was just a thought I had about some of his work I looked at in my book.

Also, Tiepolo would make large scale drawings of his subjects, creating just the detailed subject lines and punch holes along the lines and then use charcoal dust and pounce an outline out for painting guidelines. Mostlikely, this may have been done prior to his underpainting, as you discribed.

One thing is for sure, he was fast in his work, very detailed and was to me one of the best painters of frescos who ever lived. He certainly stayed busy all the days of his life, either drawing, oil painting and doing frescos. He had a great imagination and was able to put it all down in one format or another.

Some of his best drawings where done in chalk and charcaol. Based on the drawings in my book they were black and white drawings on a kind of beige colored paper.

Question: Do you think he used egg tempera on dry or semi wet plaster? Could he have used just wet pigment alone on wet plaster? What would be the difference and why? I'd be interested to know more about what his actual method was, as my book never really clarified any of that, and I have read it cover to cover. So, what are your thoughts George!!

Welcome home!!

John

[George O'Hanlon]

I do not have the specific details for Tiepolo's fresco work, but it was common practice for artists in this period to paint the lapis lazuli blue in tempera on the set plaster, typically the day after it was applied. There are two reasons for this type of practice when painting with transparent blue pigments: 1) the high transparency of lapis lazuli makes it imperative to apply large amounts, which is counter to the practice of fresco painting, and 2) lapis lazuli was the most expensive pigment of the time, so using large amounts was prohibitive.

That this was the practice can be readily seen in frescoes by many artists of the Medieval and Renaissance periods. For example, in many of the backgrounds of the frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel painted by Giotto, you can see red where the blue has deteriorated.

[ 26. October 2010, 08:54: Message edited by: Admin ]

[John Kennedy]

George, I do understand about the transparency of lapis lazuli and the expense back then (and now!). The method you describe is pretty much standard for fresco work, I believe and I understand about the fading of the color (much like malachite) and may be mostly a problem with fresco painting only.

My basic question would be more about - could one use just wet pigment that has been mulled with the finished wet plaster (lime putty) and would it act more as a staining effect of the two wet solids when dry? If he (Tiepolo) used the method you described above as a tempera on set plaster, was it the egg yoke that kept his work from cracking? Or would it be the chemical reaction that goes on between te paint and the lime putty?

Interestingly, most of his work photographed in my book has very little crackng under the lens in the blown up photographs. I understand tempera to be quite brittle in certain situations and cracking can be a problem one might have to deal with when using tempera paint.

Most of todays modern temperas have an acrylic blend incorporated into their mixing process. I like using the Chroma Green Series Tempera paint. It is environmentally friendly and quite flexible.

I'm guessing that if mixing our own a little bit of acrylic emulsion could be mixed into a tempera paint mixture to add a bit of flexibility along with some clove oil for a preservative. How do you think that would work and could it be used for fresco painting on lime putty after the lime putty has set up for a day? I may try this to see what happens, but your thoughts are important to me, so let me know what you think about my madness! Tiepolo didn't have acrylic emulsions in his day, but if it would work well with the aged lime putty, I would guess he would have loved it.

Thanks again for your remarks George and I will keep that knowledge under my hat for future use. Hope to hear from you soon on these questions.

Blessings, John