Tiepolo between Venice, Milan, Dresden and Madrid in a major exhibition at Gallerie d'Italia

Presented in streaming this morning the major exhibition that Milan is dedicating for the first time to Giambattista Tiepolo, entitled Tiepolo. Venice, Milan, Europe, at the Gallerie d’Italia in Piazza Scala. The exhibition celebrates the 250th anniversary of the artist’s death and can be visited from October 30, 2020 to March 21, 2021.

Curated by Fernando Mazzocca and Alessandro Morandotti, the exhibition traces through more than sixty paintings, on loan from national and international collections, the production of the famous painter, from his training in Venice to his international affirmation.
In particular, the exhibition aims to document in detail for the first time the Milanese years with the detached frescoes in the church of Sant’Ambrogio.

Ideally, the current exhibition is connected to the exhibitions that have been dedicated to Canaletto and Canova (the latter visited by more than 200,000 people) precisely at the Gallerie d’Italia.

It was stressed how art and culture, pillars of the history and identity of every national community, represent an important resource not only for social resilience, but also for alleviating the suffering, deprivation, and sacrifice caused by the current pandemic. And how without the values of culture, no reconstruction, no return to normalcy and no future is possible.

Alessandro Morandotti, one of the two curators, said that the intent of the exhibition is "not so much to illustrate Tiepolo’s activity with a collection of not very casual masterpieces, but rather to mount a narrative and bring out new facts." The aim was to follow Tiepolo’s story from his formative years in Venice to the years of his international affirmation having Milan as its fulcrum.

The exhibition was also an opportunity for restoration: the only sacred works painted by Tiepolo in Milan, namely the frescoes of Sant’Ambrogio. The frescoes were detached in the late 19th century to try to recover the medieval skin of the basilica.

Through this exhibition, an attempt has also been made to bring into the story of Tiepolo’s training the story of a Lombard painter, Paolo Pagani, who was rooted in Venice for 20 years between the late 1660s and 1690, here on display with two works that restore the salient facts of the history of Troy. Tiepolo ideally compares himself with Pagani in terms of color choices and dynamic compositions. Another important stage in Tiepolo’s training is his meeting with Giovanni Battista Piazzetta in the church of San Stae in Venice.
Tiepolo’s early works for Venetian patrons are then analyzed, particularly for some of the new Venetian families, such as the Zenobio or the Sandi.

The exhibition continues with the sketch for Palazzo Clerici with an illusionistically painted frame.

This is followed by the German period, in Würzburg and Dresden, and finally by Tiepolo’s years in Madrid: he brings with him the materials of years of work, drawings already used in other contexts and sketches already used for other contexts, as in the case of the sketch with the Triumph of Venus now in the Prado. A sketch that Tiepolo takes with him to reuse in a room of the Royal Palace, dedicated to the story of Aeneas and Venus. Nothing is thus lost, as the artist reuses, reinventing with his typical imagination, models already employed. Displayed alongside this extraordinary sketch is the altarpiece with the angel comforting St. Francis as he receives the stigmata, one of Tiepolo’s last productions in Madrid, where Tiepolo changes register, becoming almost sentimental, in a kind of psychological introspection that is also the result of his dialogue with his son Giandomenico, who had followed his father in the German and Madrid years. Here Tiepolo the father looks to Tiepolo the son.

The exhibition concludes with a large work by Giandomenico completed on his return from Madrid, from the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice: the father’s chromatic experience can be seen here, but with an even more highlighted luminosity.

Pictured: Giambattista Tiepolo, Saint Francis of Assisi Receives the Stigmata (1767-1769; oil on canvas, 278 x 153 cm; Madrid, Prado) Credit Museo Nacional del Prado

Tiepolo between Venice, Milan, Dresden and Madrid in a major exhibition at Gallerie d'Italia

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