Giandomenico
Tiepolo
(b Venice, 30 Aug 1727; d Venice, 3
March 1804). Son of Giambattista Tiepolo.
Giambattista’s eldest surviving son, he entered his
father’s studio in the early 1740s, where he learnt his
art by copying his father’s drawings and etchings. In
1747, aged 20, Giandomenico painted a cycle of 14
paintings, the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross)
for the oratory of the Crucifix in S Polo, Venice (in
situ). He avoided any hint of Giambattista’s
grandiloquence and created tender scenes that portray
the suffering of Christ, the grief of his followers and
the cold objectivity of the bystanders in a
straightforward manner. From 1750 to 1770 Giandomenico
was both his father’s assistant and associate as well as
an independent artist, although at times the roles
merged. From 1750 to 1753 they were preparing and
executing the fresco decorations in the Würzburg
Residenz, but Giandomenico was also producing a large
number of his own works, such as the Institution of
the Eucharist (1753; Copenhagen, Stat. Mus. Kst).
This is painted in the simple and direct manner that is
typical of his art both as regards subject-matter—for
example the Minuet (c. 1755; Barcelona,
Mus. A. Catalunya), where the pleasure of a country
dance is conveyed—and composition—for example the
Four Camaldolese Saints (c. 1756; Verona,
Castelvecchio), in which the figures are very simply
grouped together.
