Adriano Mariuz’s writings on Giandomenico and Giambattista Tiepolo are among the finest results of art history studies in the last few decades. This books opens with an essay on Giandomenico, previously published in a monograph dedicated to the artist in 1971: a masterpiece of critical insight bodied forth in writing of such a high standard that it still comes as surprise today. This is a rare example of history of the art conceived in the name of a shared pleasure – that of the writer and his readers.
The other essays featuring Giandomenico are on subjects ranging from the drawings to the emblematic figure of Punchinello. These writings are interwoven with others on Giambattista Tiepolo, and especially his work as a frescante (fresco artist). Mariuz provides such a compelling interpretation of Giambattista’s frescoes as to give him a leading role in 18th-century European art.

The exceptional interpretative sensibility characterising the works published in this book is exemplified by Mariuz’s opening sentence in a description of Giambattista, originally in the catalogue for a 1996 exhibition in Venice and New York: “For Marcel Proust, the name of Tiepolo was associated with a colour: an unmistakable hue of pink, the pink of one of the dressing gowns which Odette Swann used to wear when at home and which so enhanced her charm.”

Serie Writings by historians of Veneto art
Promoted by the Giorgio Cini Institute Foundation for Art History in collaboration with the Veneto Region, this series brings together the most significant texts by scholars specialised in Veneto Art.