Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy under Charles III
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo1762
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Famed as a decorator, Tiepolo made this small sketch as his model for a vast ceiling fresco in the throne room of the Royal Palace of Madrid, a project that was the climax of his illustrious career. Taking its cue from the room's function, Tiepolo's design has as its central feature the allegorical figure of Spain enthroned and flanked by Herculean statues. Just above is the trumpeting figure of Fame. The borders are packed with lively figures representing the provinces of Spain and the continents where she held colonies. At the upper left, Christopher Columbus stands with outstretched arms on the deck of his ship. Nearby are Neptune, god of the sea, who guides the expedition, and an American Indian in a feathered headdress.
One must think of this as a design to be seen overhead in a large, high-ceilinged room. With his legendary facility, Tiepolo resolved the difficulties of foreshortening forms seen from sharply below, of deploying the figures in coherent groups, and, in turn, incorporating the groups into an effective overall design. The result is an airy sweep that seems to open directly to the heavens with all its buoyant and extravagant population paying homage to Spain.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication_ Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries_, which is available as a free PDF <u>https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/italian-paintings-17th-and-18th-centuries.pdf</u>
- Title: Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy under Charles III
- Creator: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
- Date Created: 1762
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 181.8 x 104.3 cm (71 9/16 x 41 1/16 in.) framed: 192.4 x 115.3 cm (75 3/4 x 45 3/8 in.)
- Provenance: Possibly by inheritance from the artist to a niece who married Pagliano, perhaps the painter Eleuterio Pagliano [1826-1903]; possibly purchased in Venice by Edward Cheney [1803-1884],[1] London, after 1860 at Badger Hall, Shropshire;[2] possibly by inheritance to his brother-in-law, Colonel Alfred Capel-Cure [1826-1896]; by inheritance to his nephew, Francis Capel-Cure [1854-1933], Badger Hall, Shropshire.[3] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[4] purchased 26 June 1935 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1943 to NGA. [1] Eduard Sack, _Giambattista und Domenico Tiepolo. Ihr Leben und Ihre Werke_, Hamburg, 1910: 223, gives this information from Francis Capel-Cure, who had inherited Cheney's collection. Sack gives only Pagliano's last name. While no documentation has been located, this account appears to be corroborated by the stipulations of Giandomenico Tiepolo's will of 1795, published by G. M. Urbani de Gheltof, _Tiepolo e la sua famiglia. Note e documenti inediti_, Venice, 1879: 70-75. This document established a fideicommissum, including "modelli" and "quadri," that was to pass to Francesco Antonio Tiepolo, son of Giambattista's brother, and thereafter to Francesco Antonio's children. If the paintings did pass to Francesco Antonio's children, one of them would have been the niece (or more properly grandniece) of Giambattista, said by Capel-Cure to have married Pagliano. Urbani de Gheltof 1879, 38, 97, recounts, however, that the drawings and sketches from Giandomenico's collection (but perhaps only some of them) passed to various heirs after the death of Giandomenico's wife and brother, and were eventually sold by the dealer Luigi Rizzoli of Padua to a rich Frenchman who still owned them in 1879. [2] Gustav Waagen, _Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain_, London, 1857: 173, noted that Cheney had a collection of nineteen sketches for ceilings executed for churches in Venice, and 171, that Cheney acquired most of his collection while resident in Venice. On Cheney see George Knox, _Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum_, London, 1960: 4-5. [3] Sack 1910: 139, 223, lists Francis Capel-Cure as the owner. [4] See note 5. [5] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files) was for seven paintings and a number of decorative art objects; the provenance is given as "From the Collection of Sig. Paliano, husband of Tiepolo's niece. From the Capel Cure Family, Badger Hall, England." See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2471.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on canvas
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