Author Description

The Artist at Court' comprises some twenty works by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Venice, 1727-1804), brother of Lorenzo Tiepolo (Venice, 1736-Madrid, 1776). Their father was the painter Battista Tiepolo (Venice, 1696-Madrid, 1770), the creator of a decorative fresco style that owed much to the elegance of the great Venetian painters, Veronese in particular. Giambattista arrived in Madrid in 1762 on the invitation of King Charles III, principally to paint a number of ceilings at the Royal Palace, including the ceiling of the Throne Room. With his sons as assistants, he received further commissions until his death in Madrid in 1770, at which point Giandomenico decided to return home to Venice. During his time in Spain, besides helping to paint frescoes Giandomenico produced a number of easel paintings and works on paper. A choice selection of these works is now on display in rooms 13, 14 and 15 of the old Museum building: eleven oil-on-canvas paintings and a dozen etchings. The works included were selected by exhibition curator Andrés Úbeda de los Cobos, head of Conservation of Italian and French Painting (to 1700) at the Prado in Madrid. In recent years Úbeda de los Cobos has done valuable work in clarifying the personalities and artistic qualities of Giandomenico and Lorenzo, so often overshadowed by their acclaimed father.00Exhibition: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain (09.12.2014 - 20.04.2015).