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From: Mark art reviews
Category: Art
Date: 19 September 2005
In some churches palaces and schools (serving networking adults) for religious botherhoods, there are remarkable decorations by Giambattista Tiepolo, not to be confused with his inferior son giandomenico.
The lovelyly named Palazzo Labia http://www.palazzolabia.com/ is the best place you can go to admire sheer gorgeousness. It has been taken over corporate evil in the shape of Rai, the Italian tv company. If you say you've got an appointment they will let you in, or you could even make one. Tiepolo does not see walls or ceilings. He goes through them at the most extreme perspectives, making nonsense of reality, substituting the part for the whole, and rocketing everything into space.
The Ca'Rezonnico http://www.jssgallery.org/Essay/Venice/Casa/Ca_Rezzonico.htm, allows us to compare a series of ceilings, none of them remarkably amazing, but worth the trip nevertheless. Tiepolo's colours may be found to have been lifted from the pinks, browns, terracotta if you must, and sparkling sea, and blue sky of venice. He will not abide heaviness.
I will skip the churches, you must patiently track them down, and repulsively contribute money to enter these money-changing temples. The itinerary will allow an energizing tour of the islands.
You may finish perhaps at the Accademia gallery http://web.tiscali.it/wwwart/accademia/english/ind_engl.htm, where there a few blasted bits of tiepolo, and one upfaced circular ceiling.. And the giorgione, and the brilliant Veronese amongst others.
We may pause and wonder why Tiepolo's name is not breathed with the other greats of history, perhaps his work, free from gravity, though stuck to bricks and mortar, cannot travel to the lazy art historians who must decide these things, or the masses dislike decorators, preferring those who make portable units of value.
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