Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo filled ceilings with light. His skies are pale blue and silver, his figures float in loose, airy groups, and his colour stays cool and clear even in the grandest scenes. He is often called the finest decorative painter of eighteenth century Europe.

Born in Venice, he trained with Gregorio Lazzarini and learned from Veronese and Sebastiano Ricci. His great commissions took him across Europe: the Cleopatra frescoes in the Palazzo Labia in Venice, the vast staircase ceiling of the Würzburg Residence in Germany, and finally the throne room of the Royal Palace in Madrid, where he died in 1770. His sons Giovanni Domenico and Lorenzo worked beside him.

His easel paintings share the same theatre and charm. Alexander the Great and Campaspe in the Studio of Apelles is a good example, with its rich costumes and a painter at work inside the story.