Soldati fra colonne

Soldiers among columns was a subject that allowed Tiepolo to combine his narrative facility with a taste for exotic military costume and the kind of architectural theater he had developed through decades of ceiling and wall fresco work. The subject has no specific literary source and may be an autonomous fantasy — a capriccio militare — in the tradition of Salvator Rosa's soldier pieces, which Tiepolo knew well. By the time he was producing such cabinet pictures in the 1750s and 1760s, his international reputation was established, and works like this could be produced for the luxury market without a specific patron program. The architectural columns provide a classical theatrical backdrop that recalls his fresco settings.

The soldiers' exotic armor and uniforms are painted in warm ochres, siennas, and metallic greys, with Tiepolo's characteristic airy luminosity preserving the figures from the heaviness that would weigh down a Baroque treatment of similar material. The columns behind are handled broadly, more suggesting than describing the architectural setting.