Full title | Seated Man, Woman with Jar, and Boy |
---|---|
Artist | Giovanni Battista Tiepolo |
Artist dates | 1696 - 1770 |
Series | Four Decorative Scenes |
Date made | about 1740-6 |
Medium and support | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 160.4 x 53.5 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1960 |
Inventory number | NG6304 |
Location | Room 39 |
Art route(s) | C |
Collection | Main Collection |
Within a walled garden, a man wearing a striking blue costume and ornate necklace catches the gaze of a woman holding a jar. A young boy stands just behind her, carrying a spear. Beyond the wall we glimpse treetops and birds flying across a bright sky.
This picture is part of a series of four paintings that once decorated a room in the Palazzo Cornaro on the Campo San Polo, Venice. The pictures are based on Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Jerusalem Delivered which is set during the First Crusade, a Christian military campaign to recapture Jerusalem from Islamic rule. The poem tells of the ill-fated love between the Saracen sorceress Armida and Rinaldo, a Christian knight. The woman in this scene may represent Armida who, left heartbroken by Rinaldo’s sudden departure, decides to join the fight against the Crusaders. The exotically dressed man sitting at her feet is probably Adrastus, an Indian prince who vows to tear out Rinaldo’s heart to satisfy Armida’s desire for revenge.
The figures’ twisted poses create a sense of movement within the picture, and Tiepolo’s lively brushstrokes add vibrancy to the wonderful fabrics and patterns on display.
Within a walled garden, a man wearing a striking blue costume and ornate necklace catches the gaze of a woman holding a jar. A young boy stands just behind her, carrying a spear. Beyond the wall we glimpse treetops and birds flying across a bright sky.
This picture is part of a series of four paintings that once decorated a room in the Palazzo Cornaro on the Campo San Polo, Venice. The pictures are based on Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Jerusalem Delivered which is set during the First Crusade, a Christian military campaign to recapture Jerusalem from Islamic rule. The poem tells of the ill-fated love between the Saracen sorceress Armida and Rinaldo, a Christian knight. Another painting from the series, Rinaldo turning in Shame from the Magic Shield shows the moment in which Armida’s spell is broken and Rinaldo resolves to return to war. The woman in this scene may represent Armida who, left heartbroken by Rinaldo’s sudden departure, decides to join the fight against the Crusaders. The exotically dressed man sitting at her feet is probably Adrastus, an Indian prince who vows to tear out Rinaldo’s heart to satisfy Armida’s desire for revenge.
The figures’ twisted poses create a sense of movement within the picture, and Tiepolo’s lively brushstrokes add vibrancy to the wonderful fabrics and patterns on display.
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Seated Man, Woman with Jar, and Boy
Four Decorative Scenes
These four narrow canvases were painted during the 1740s by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo to decorate a room on the second floor of the Palazzo Cornaro on the Campo San Polo, Venice. Tiepolo was enjoying growing fame across Italy at this time; receiving prestigious commissions for monumental ceiling paintings and wall decorations.
The paintings formed part of a complex decorative scheme, with which a ceiling painting (now in Canberra) and four allegorical figures (now divided between New York and Amsterdam), have been associated. Tiepolo’s four paintings in the National Gallery – Rinaldo turning in Shame from the Magic Shield, Seated Man, Woman with Jar and Boy, Two Men in Oriental Costume and Two Orientals seated under a Tree – are inspired by Torquato Tasso’s popular sixteenth-century poem Jerusalem Delivered. Set during the First Crusade, a Christian military campaign to recapture Jerusalem from Islamic rule, the poem tells of the ill-fated love between the Saracen sorceress Armida and Rinaldo, a Christian knight. Tiepolo’s pale pastel tones and lively brushwork in these scenes create a dazzling and exotic atmosphere.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is best known for his monumental ceiling paintings and wall decorations which transformed palaces and monasteries across Europe, from his native Venice to Germany and Spain. Painted at a time when Tiepolo’s fame was growing across Italy, these four narrow canvases once adorned a room on the second floor of the Palazzo Cornaro (or Corner) on the Campo San Polo, Venice.
The interior of the sixteenth-century Palazzo Cornaro was extensively redecorated between 1736 and 1747 in preparation for a marriage. Payments for work in the Sala degli Specchi (Room of Mirrors), on the second floor, are recorded in the 1740s. The room had an allegorical ceiling painting at its centre (now in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra) and the walls were decorated with woodwork and mirrors. Four canvases with female allegorical figures, painted in monochrome and simulating bas-relief sculpture, hung above the doors (these are now thought to be the paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). In addition, there were four long rectangular canvases by Tiepolo (‘Quattro pezzi di quadro bislunghi’) which have been convincingly linked to the four narrow, upright paintings in the National Gallery. As indicated by an eighteenth-century inventory, the paintings drew inspiration from Torquato Tasso’s popular sixteenth-century poem Jerusalem Delivered. Set during the First Crusade (1096–9), a Christian military campaign to recapture Jerusalem from Islamic rule, the poem tells of the ill-fated love between the Saracen sorceress Armida and Rinaldo, a Christian knight.
The elaborate costumes and headgear worn by the figures in Tiepolo’s four paintings – Rinaldo turning in Shame from the Magic Shield, Seated Man, Woman with Jar and Boy, Two Men in Oriental Costume and Two Orientals seated under a Tree – reflect the eighteenth-century taste for the exotic. The pale pastel tones and Tiepolo’s lively brushwork in these paintings would have helped create a dazzling atmosphere in the room. The stories told in Tasso’s poem were especially popular in eighteenth-century Europe, where they often became the subject of operas, plays and concerts as well as art.




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