Giambattista Tiepolo

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is regarded to be the last of the “Grand Manner” fresco painters who was born on March 5th, 1696. He was born to a sea captain father, Domenico and his wife Orsetta. The Tiepolo name belongs to a noble patrician family, but his father didn’t claim noble lineage. He was named such in honor of his godfather who was a Venetian nobleman named Giovanni Battista Doria. His father died a year after his birth leaving his mother in such financial difficulty.

The young Tiepolo was initially taught by Gregorio Lazzarini, but he personally favored older contemporaries such as Ricci and Piazzeta. At the early age of 19 he managed to complete his first major commission the “Sacrifice of Isaac” after which he left the studio and was accepted into the Fraglia guild of painters. He married the sister of two contemporary painters, Maria Cecilla Guardi who gave him nine children of whom only seven survived childhood. Two of his sons acted as his assistants and managed to gain some recognition independent of their father with the third becoming a priest.