Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)

ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - A 2004. ÉV - TEMPORARY EXEIIBITIONS - IDŐSZAKI KIÁLLÍTÁSOK - ANDREA CZÉRE: Capriccio in Time and Space: On the Bicentenary of Giandomenico Tiepolo's Death

63. Interior view of the exhibition and choice of themes. The wide scope of his art is apparent in those of his works that are preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; in the above exhibition, his oeuvre was shown by way of eight paintings, five drawings and seventy-two etchings (fig. 63). While the father painted mainly large-scale ceiling frescoes, murals and altar paintings for aristocrats and wealthy ecclesiastical organisations - works represented at the exhibition by prints made after them by Giandomenico himself - the son's output is characterised by paintings, drawings and etchings of a more intimate kind, works made for a middle-class clientele. Religious and historical themes linked to the ancien régime are increasingly questioned in his rendering. A repudiation of the tradition of monumental and solemn allegorical depiction is revealed by his démystification of gods, heroes and saints; by his exaggerated, almost caricatural, forms; and by his use of a foreshortening that verges on the absurd. Irony and humour also occur in his works, especially in those he made towards the end of his career, a time when he concentrated on genre scenes and drawings. He varied his subjects with great imagination, experimenting with different compositional structures, as documented by the analogies and explanations in the show. Two features of Rococo were preserved in his art: intimacy and the need for close-ups, and vitality. Observation of Venetian life clearly contributed here. When working together with his father, Giandomenico was given tasks to execute alone: the embellishment, mainly in monochrome, of sppraporte, the spaces above doors, with mythological or historical scenes. As in his oil paintings, these works are simpler in terms of composition and more realistic than those by his father. In his scenes from ancient history and mythology, heroes are presented without solemnity, or else are depicted with ironically exaggerated ceremonious gestures. Giandomenico