AUTHOR: Giambattista Tiepolo
CENTURY: XVIII°
CHURCH: Church of San Polo
DATE: 1754
POSITION: : left nave – second altar (on map n°10)
MEASUREMENT: 346 x 145 cm
METHOD: oil painting on canvas
Commissioned for the altar that was recently completed by Giorgio Massari, the altarpiece illustrates St John of Nepomuk, who was just canonized.
St John of Nepomuk leans back with a euphoric joy adding emotion to the scene. The figure of the Virgin is elevated and monumental, but the composition remains simple without other figures that were traditional in Tiepolo’s works from a few years earlier (an example are those conserved in the church of Sant’Alvise).
Here we have a new way to treat sacred subjects, almost staight to the point and sober, a style that will remain with him as he matures, until death. Even the color is softened, almost steady, maybe this responds to the needs of the church, which isn’t that bright.
This altarpiece of Tiepolo was dated in 1754, otherwise, right after the artists return from Germany.
