AUTHOR: Giandomenico Tiepolo
CENTURY: XVIII°
CHURCH: Church of San Polo
DATE: 1747-49
POSITION: crucifix oratory (on the map of the oratory n°2)
METHOD: oil painting on canvas
The Via Crucis is a work by the young Giandomenico Tiepolo, even though immature, he shows all the essential qualifications in his art that will differentiate him from his father. (The later, has completely conformed to ordinary painting, enough so that the critics have a hard time attributing his works of art).
Tiepolo’s style has a deeply rooted bond with reality, an almost bourgeois rhetoric, and an indifference for the sacred mystery which separates him from his father, who represents the ancient regime.
The fourteen Via Crucis paintings are the first editorial paintings of this subject in Venice; subsequently there are those of Antonio Zucchi in the churches of San Giobbe and Santa Maria del Giglio.
The young painter chose to give the sequence a choppy rhythmic order. The scenes in the paintings are dramatic and characterised by the constant presence of a agitated crowd, being a profound participant of the human tragedy of Christ.
