Saint Blaise

Saint Blaise, painted around 1733 and now at Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, depicts the Armenian bishop-martyr who was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers — saints invoked for specific physical ailments, with Blaise as the protector against throat diseases. His cult was ancient and widespread across Europe, and the candle-blessing ceremony on his feast day remained a popular Catholic observance throughout the eighteenth century. Ca' Rezzonico, the magnificent Baroque palace on the Grand Canal that now serves as Venice's Museum of Eighteenth Century Art, holds this and other Tiepolo works in an architecturally appropriate setting — the palace was itself decorated by Tiepolo family members, with Giovanni Battista's son Giandomenico painting celebrated frescoes in the ballroom. The saint's confident episcopal bearing and Tiepolo's characteristically luminous palette give this devotional work an authority transcending its modest subject.

The saint is presented with Tiepolo's characteristic brilliant color and atmospheric luminosity. The episcopal vestments are rendered in passages of rich, saturated hue — reds, golds, and whites — that demonstrate the Venetian coloristic tradition at its most exuberant late Baroque expression.