Study for a Ceiling with the Personification of Counsel
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo·before c. 1762
Historical Context
This study for a ceiling personifying Counsel (before c. 1762) may relate to Tiepolo's late decorative programs, possibly for the Royal Palace in Madrid. The personification of political virtues was standard in palace decoration, and Counsel — the quality of wise deliberation — was especially appropriate for royal reception rooms. Tiepolo's oil studies preserve the spontaneous energy of his creative process before translation to monumental fresco.
Technical Analysis
The study shows Tiepolo's characteristic ceiling composition with the figure seen from below in dramatic foreshortening. Fluid brushwork and a luminous palette of blues, pinks, and golds capture the celestial atmosphere of the projected ceiling.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the characteristic ceiling composition with the figure seen from below in dramatic foreshortening — Counsel, the virtue of wise deliberation, personified for a palace ceiling.
- ◆Look at the fluid brushwork and luminous palette of blues, pinks, and golds capturing the celestial atmosphere.
- ◆Observe this study possibly relating to the Royal Palace in Madrid — Tiepolo's last and most ambitious decorative program.
Provenance
Possibly Edward Cheney [1803-1884], London, after 1860 Badger Hall, Shropshire;[1] 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.[2] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[3] purchased 1932 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] National Gallery of Art, _Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture_, Washington, D.C., 1941: 192, and a note in the Kress records, NGA curatorial records, placed the painting "formerly in the Capel-Cure Collection," most of which was inherited from Cheney as recounted by George Knox, _Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum_, 2nd edition, London, 1975: 4-5. 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. A number of these were sold at Christie, Manson and Woods, London, on 29 April 1885; the present painting may have been included in lot 170, "Three designs for ceilings." [2] Placed in this collection by NGA 1941: 192, and a note in the Kress records, NGA curatorial files. The painting does not appear in the Francis Capel-Cure sale held at Christie, Manson and Woods, London, 6 May 1905, or in the list given by Eduard Sack, _Giambattista und Domenico Tiepolo. Ihr Leben und Ihre Werke_, Hamburg, 1910: 223, of paintings then owned by Francis Capel-Cure. Perhaps Sack had rejected the attribution or was not aware of the painting's existence. [3] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century_, London, 1973: 148; Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:442. [4] A typed notation in the Kress records, NGA curatorial files, states that the painting was acquired in 1932 without stating from whom; see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2020.
