My Own Conclusion

Just knowing that Tiepolo created such a great work as this one during a period in his life which we now call "his early work" is amazing. His talent was already so immense for a person who is just beginning their lifetime career as an artist. Knowing this, has made me look at his painting with even more appreciation and admiration.His other works are just as intriguing and thought provoking as The Triumph of Virtue and Nobility over Ignorance.

Giambattista Tiepolo

In Venice, Tiepolo was the youngest of six children born to Orsetta and Domenico Tiepolo, a sea captain. His father Domenico died a year after his birth, leaving Orsetta in difficult financial circumstances.

Giambattista was initially a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini, but the influences from elder contemporaries such as Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta are stronger and more evident in his work. At 19 years of age, Tiepolo completed his first major commission, the Sacrifice of Isaac. He left Lazzarini studio in 1717, and was received into the Fraglia or guild of painters.

In 1719, Tiepolo was married to Maria Cecilia Guardi, sister of two contemporary Venetian painters Francesco and Giovanni Antonio Guardi. Together, Tiepolo and his wife had nine children. Four daughters and three sons survived childhood. Two sons, Domenico and Lorenzo, painted with him as his assistants and achieved some independent recognition. His third son became a priest.

Dionisio Delfino, commissioned a fresco decoration of the chapel and palace from the young Tiepolo. Tiepolo's first masterpieces in Venice were a cycle of enormous canvases painted to decorate a large reception room of Ca' Dolfin on the Grand Canal of Venice (ca. 1726–1729), depicting ancient battles and triumph.

These early masterpieces, novel for Venetian frescoes in their luminosity, brought him many commissions. He painted canvases for churches such as that of Verolanuova (1735–1740), for the Scuola dei Carmini (1740–1747), and the Chiesa degli Scalzi (1743–1744; now destroyed) in Cannaregio, a ceiling for the Palazzi Archinto and Casati-Dugnani in Milan (1731), theColleoni Chapel in Bergamo (1732–1733), a ceiling for the Gesuati (Santa Maria del Rosario) in Venice of St. Dominic Instituting the Rosary (1737–1739), Palazzo Clerici, Milan (1740), decorations for Villa Cordellini at Montecchio Maggiore (1743–1744) and for the ballroom of the Palazzo Labia, now a television studio in Venice, showing the Story of Cleopatra (1745–1750). Within this time period is when he created the beautiful  masterpiece, Triumph of Virtue and Nobility over Ignorance.

My Personal View on The Triumph of Virtue and Nobility over Ignorance

I was drawn to this painting for many reasons.The first reason is because of it's size.  A painting of that size can automatically captivate an audience. There were so many details to look at. Certain parts of the painting take a second to notice because they are light in color and seem to blend in easily with the background making them easy to miss.It's a strange scene to intepret just because there seems to be so much going on in the painting. The colors are light and are relatively in the same color palette except for the blue gown that the woman is wearing. The question that I ask myself is, did Tiepolo do this purposely to draw our attention to what the woman is doing? Even if the answer is yes it is still hard to determine what she may be doing. Does she represent ignorance? The others in the painting are higher than she is and seem to be more at peace. Do they represent virtue and nobility? Art has it's way of making us look at paintings from different persepectives until we are able to form our own conclusion. Whether it matches the intention of the artist, we may never know.

A day at the Norton Simon Museum

I have always had an interest in art which is why I was happy to go on the class field trip to the Norton Simon museum. I even brought a friend along. It was about a ten minute drive from her home in Alhambra and we found parking very easily considering the fact that every parking lot in Pasadena is always crowded (it was free too which was a plus). We met up with my Art 106 class just in time to head into the museum. We were greeted by museum employees who seemed more than willing to answer any questions we had on any particular painting. We took our time touring the museum and were happy to see that we could recognize some of the artist's works.We took the time to admire the art piece's and were excited to see Diego Rivera's work in the museum. The painting that I was especially drawn to was The Triumph of Virtue and Nobility over Ignorance by Giambatista Tiepolo.