Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Biography | Oil Paintings.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was the youngest of six children, his family bore the prestigious noble name of Tiepolo, but did not have any noble descent. In 1710 at the age of fourteen, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo became a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini, a successful and eclectic painter, and was also influenced by his study of the works of other contemporary artists such as Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and especially Tintoretto and Veronese.

In 1719, Tiepolo married noblewoman Maria Cecilia Guardi, sister of the Venetian artists Giovanni Antonio and Francesco Guardi.

The noble Dioniso Dolfin, the Archbishop of Udine in Friuli employed him to decorate a chapel in the Cathedral at Udine, and then to paint another cycle depicting scenes from the lives of Abraham and his descendants from the book of Genesis at his archiepiscopal palace, the Arcivescovado. Despite the serious subject matter, their color is bright, and the mood light-hearted. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo used a much cooler palette to create a convincing effect of sunlight.

By 1750, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's reputation was firmly established throughout Europe, with the help of his art dealer, critic, and collector friend Francesco Algarotti. That same year, at the request of Prince Bishop Karl Philip von Greiffenklau, he traveled to Würzburg, Germany and stayed there for three years working on ceiling paintings in the recently finished New Residenz Palace. Having finished his work, Tiepolo returned to Venice in 1753, he was now in demand locally, as well as abroad, and was elected President of the Academy of Padua.

In 1761, Charles III commissioned Giovanni Battista Tiepolo to create a ceiling fresco for the throne room of the Royal Palace of Madrid. The theme is the Apotheosis of Spain and has allegorical portrayals recalling the dominance of Spain in the new colonies around the world. Tiepolo also painted series of canvases for the church of St. Pascual, however, Tiepolo was bitterly jealous and opposed to the rising star of Neoclassicism, Anton Raphael Mengs. Mengs would have none of this backstabbing and at his instigation, Meng's friend, the King's confessor Joaquim de Electa, had Tiepolo's series of canvases for the church replaced by works by his Mengs.

After Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's death, the rise of strict Neoclassicism and the post-revolutionary decline of absolutism led to the slow decline of his painting style, but his reputation was not dented or lessened.

Art Movement: Rococo Art.
Artists Influencing Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: Gregorio Lazzarini.
He Traveled To Germany, Spain.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.