Saint Blaise

Saint Blaise by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, at Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, depicts the Armenian bishop-martyr who is invoked as the patron saint of throat ailments. Tiepolo's treatment brings the luminous, airy palette of his mature manner to this devotional subject. Tiepolo's religious subjects achieve paradoxical airiness — sacred drama rendered in pastel-tinted light that dissolves solid matter into atmosphere. His altarpieces for Venetian, German, and Spanish patrons combine Counter-Reformati...

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.