The eighteenth-century Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo spent
his life executing commissions in churches, palaces, and villas,
often covering vast ceilings like those at the Wurzburg Residenz in
Germany and the Royal Palace in Madrid with frescoes that are among
the glories of Western art. The life of an epoch swirled around
him--but though his contemporaries appreciated and admired him,
they failed to understand him.
Few have even attempted to tackle Tiepolo's series of thirty-three
bizarre and haunting etchings, the "Capricci" and the "Scherzi,"
but Roberto Calasso rises to the challenge, interpreting them as
chapters in a dark narrative that contains the secret of Tiepolo's
art. Blooming ephebes, female Satyrs, Oriental sages, owls, snakes:
we will find them all, as well as Punchinello and Death, within the
pages of this book, along with Venus, Time, Moses, numerous angels,
Cleopatra, and Beatrice of Burgundy--a motley company always on the
go.
Calasso makes clear that Tiepolo was more than a dazzling
intermezzo in the history of painting. Rather, he represented a
particular way of meeting the challenge of form: endowed with a
fluid, seemingly effortless style, Tiepolo was the last incarnation
of that peculiar Italian virtue of "sprezzatura," the art of not
seeming artful.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
