In 1762, at the age of 66, the Venetian artist Giambattista Tiepolo left his hometown for Madrid to begin the final chapter of his glittering career. He had been invited by the Spanish king, Charles III, to decorate the ceiling of the Throne Room, one of the main ceremonial spaces in the new Royal Palace. Tiepolo’s large fresco, commonly known as The Glory of the Spanish Monarchy, is still a major attraction for all visitors to the palace today.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is one of the greatest painters of the last Venetian period. His main works, large-scale Rococo frescoes, are housed in the Archbishop’s Palace in Udine, the Labia Palace in Venice, the Episcopal Residence in Würzburg and the Royal Palace in Madrid. Tiepolo was born and died in March. He was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice at that time. He was quite successful with his works, which also appeared outside Italy, such as in Germany and Spain.
Tiepolo is considered by critics to be one of the traditional masters of the period. He has been called “the greatest decorative painter of eighteenth-century Europe”. In 1716, he painted his first fresco, and he would later create many more, usually depicting church walls and ceilings. In 1722, Tiepolo was one of twelve artists commissioned to contribute to a painting depicting one of the apostles as a decorative element for a church in Venice.
In 1762, at the age of 66, the Venetian artist Giambattista Tiepolo left his hometown for Madrid to begin the final chapter of his glittering career. He had been invited by the Spanish king, Charles III, to decorate the ceiling of the Throne Room, one of the main ceremonial spaces in the new Royal Palace. Tiepolo’s great fresco, commonly known as The Glory of the Spanish Monarchy, is still a major attraction for visitors to the palace today. Shortly before he left Venice, Tiepolo had told a local newspaper, La Nuova Veneta Gazzetta, that “the mind of a painter must always aim at the sublime, the heroic, and the perfect.”
These words serve as an artistic legacy from one of the greatest painters of the 18th century. He was also one of the most sought-after. Tiepolo received commissions from eminent families and religious orders throughout Italy, as well as from royal houses in Spain, Sweden, Russia, and Germany. He produced hundreds of oil paintings and acres of frescoes. Tiepolo was among the greatest exponents of artistic brilliance throughout Europe. He worked in harmony with the ambitions of the time, creating extraordinary compositions on the ceilings of palaces to celebrate the virtues and glories of the great European courts, which were then the main patrons of artists.
Tiepolo’s Triumph of Flora (c. 1760) hidden for more than 200 years in an attic because it was considered “indecent,” in 2008 the Triumph of Flora (a work commissioned by Empress Elizabeth of Russia and created by Giovan Battista Tiepolo) was found by the unwitting owners of a French chateau. Value? $3.1 million.