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Lot Essay
These two roundels were first published by Molmenti who recognized them as original decorations from the Palazzo Labia in Venice. He recorded and illustrated six tondi, of which two have not reappeared in the literature and may be lost.
Figures painted en grisaille against a gold background were a favorite decorative device of Tiepolo's which he employed both in oil and in fresco. The present paintings display the bravura composition and brushwork that are his hallmarks. No drawings related to the present figures have been identified, and judging by their rapid execution, the paintings may well be 'alla prima' inventions.
At the same time as he was working on the fresco cycle for the ballroom of Palazzo Labia, Giambattista was also commissioned to decorate the dining room in the Palazzo that overlooks the Grand Canal, now called the Sala degli Specchi (Room of Mirrors). Originally furnished with paintings by Bernardo Strozzi and Rosa di Tivoli, these were removed and in their place ornately framed mirrors were interspersed with paintings by Tiepolo. On the ceiling, he executed an oval fresco depicting Zephyr and Flora. Between the mirrors, four painted trompe-l'oeil statues were installed, while above them in plaster frames Tiepolo painted a series of gilded monochromatic tondi representing the nine Muses. Pedrocco and Pignati date this series to circa 1746-47. The entire scheme was coordinated with fictive architectural elements painted by Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna.
The present female figures generically identified as allegorical figures in the past, have now been correctly identified by Diana Gisolfi Pechukas as two of the nine Muses: Erato, the Muse of Love Poetry (symbolized by the lyre), and Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance, exemplified by a musical instrument (in this case, a French horn). They initially belonged to a set of eight tondi (one of which represented two Muses) each portraying a Muse and her attribute as described by Cesare Ripa in his Iconologia (Venice, 1643, 427-29). Figures such as these were intended to emulate bas-relief sculpture and were employed by Tiepolo on other of his great decorative projects, among them Villa Cordellina, Montecchio Maggiore.
Of the other six tondi that, in addition to the present two, originally comprised the series, two more are in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and the remaining four are lost. The original tondi were sold in the late 19th-century when they were replaced with copies which remain in situ today. Recently, Gemin and Pedrocco (op.cit.) have suggested that the present paintings (which the authors know from photographs only), as well as the other tondi from the series, were probably executed by Giambattista's son Domenico Tiepolo. However, a careful examination of the paintings suggests instead that the ingeniously posed, brilliantly drawn and vigorously painted Erato (holding the lyre) is fully the work of Giambattista himself, while the less energetic Terpsichore (with the horn), may have been executed by an assistant working under Giambattista's direction.
We are grateful to Keith Christiansen for his assistance in preparing this entry.
Figures painted en grisaille against a gold background were a favorite decorative device of Tiepolo's which he employed both in oil and in fresco. The present paintings display the bravura composition and brushwork that are his hallmarks. No drawings related to the present figures have been identified, and judging by their rapid execution, the paintings may well be 'alla prima' inventions.
At the same time as he was working on the fresco cycle for the ballroom of Palazzo Labia, Giambattista was also commissioned to decorate the dining room in the Palazzo that overlooks the Grand Canal, now called the Sala degli Specchi (Room of Mirrors). Originally furnished with paintings by Bernardo Strozzi and Rosa di Tivoli, these were removed and in their place ornately framed mirrors were interspersed with paintings by Tiepolo. On the ceiling, he executed an oval fresco depicting Zephyr and Flora. Between the mirrors, four painted trompe-l'oeil statues were installed, while above them in plaster frames Tiepolo painted a series of gilded monochromatic tondi representing the nine Muses. Pedrocco and Pignati date this series to circa 1746-47. The entire scheme was coordinated with fictive architectural elements painted by Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna.
The present female figures generically identified as allegorical figures in the past, have now been correctly identified by Diana Gisolfi Pechukas as two of the nine Muses: Erato, the Muse of Love Poetry (symbolized by the lyre), and Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance, exemplified by a musical instrument (in this case, a French horn). They initially belonged to a set of eight tondi (one of which represented two Muses) each portraying a Muse and her attribute as described by Cesare Ripa in his Iconologia (Venice, 1643, 427-29). Figures such as these were intended to emulate bas-relief sculpture and were employed by Tiepolo on other of his great decorative projects, among them Villa Cordellina, Montecchio Maggiore.
Of the other six tondi that, in addition to the present two, originally comprised the series, two more are in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and the remaining four are lost. The original tondi were sold in the late 19th-century when they were replaced with copies which remain in situ today. Recently, Gemin and Pedrocco (op.cit.) have suggested that the present paintings (which the authors know from photographs only), as well as the other tondi from the series, were probably executed by Giambattista's son Domenico Tiepolo. However, a careful examination of the paintings suggests instead that the ingeniously posed, brilliantly drawn and vigorously painted Erato (holding the lyre) is fully the work of Giambattista himself, while the less energetic Terpsichore (with the horn), may have been executed by an assistant working under Giambattista's direction.
We are grateful to Keith Christiansen for his assistance in preparing this entry.