Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804): A New Testament
October 24, 2006, through January 7, 2007
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| Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804), Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane:The Second Prayer, Pen and wash, Private Indiana Collection on loan to the Indiana University Art Museum |
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Born in Venice, Domenico Tiepolo, the son, pupil, and chief assistant of the celebrated Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770), nourished an independent artistic identity from the start of his career that fully flowered late in life. Domenico’s early painted series the Fourteen Stations of the Cross of 1747 in San Polo in Venice is stamped with his solidly quotidian vision. His twenty-four etchings tracing the Holy Family’s journey to Egypt reveal his interest in sequential imagery, while his views of country life for the Villa Valmarana of 1757 demonstrate his gifts as a genre painter. Domenico worked with his father in Madrid from 1762 to 1770 and then returned to Venice. He married in 1774, served as president of the Venetian Academy in 1783, and gradually retired from official duties before his death in 1804.
By 1785 Domenico had moved from Venice to the Tiepolo villa at Zianigo on the outskirts of the city and worked simply to please himself. His painted decorations for his house, now in the Ca’Rezzonico, Venice, are among his most personal and brilliant works. It was, however, his large finished drawings produced during his final years that established his reputation as a major artist. They belong to three long series — the adventures of the commedia dell’arte character Punchinello (the most well known); scenes of everyday life in the Veneto; and the New Testament — and are his most original accomplishments.
 This exhibition is the first to assemble a large selection of drawings from the New Testament series and coincides with the publication of the entire cycle in Domenico Tiepolo: A New Testament, by Adelheid M. Gealt and George Knox. Dr. Gealt, Director of the Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, is guest curator.
Principal funding for Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804): A New Testament has been provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, with major support from the Homeland Foundation. Additional generous support has been provided by Lawrence and Julie Salander, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Arthur Ross Foundation, The Helen Clay Frick Foundation, and the Fellows of The Frick Collection.
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The project is also supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. |
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