Giovanni Battista Tiepolo valuation
The great fresco painter of eighteenth-century Venice, whose ceilings run from Würzburg to Madrid.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770) was born in Venice and by his thirties was the most sought-after decorative painter in Europe.
What a work by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Bio
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770) was born in Venice and by his thirties was the most sought-after decorative painter in Europe. His frescoes fill the ballroom of the Palazzo Labia in Venice with the story of Antony and Cleopatra, and between 1750 and 1753 he painted the Kaisersaal and the vast staircase ceiling of the Residenz at Würzburg, with Apollo and the four continents of the world, helped by his sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo. In 1762 he went to Madrid at the invitation of Charles III to decorate the Royal Palace, and he worked in Spain for the rest of his career. He was also a fine etcher, and his two series of fantastical prints, the Capricci and the Scherzi di fantasia, are prized by collectors.
His frescoes stay where they were painted, so what comes to market is easel paintings, the oil sketches, or modelli, that he made to show patrons and plan his ceilings, drawings in pen and wash, and etchings. The oil sketches are the most sought after, because they are by his own hand and show his thinking. The central question is often father or son: Giandomenico worked beside him for decades, painted and drew in a closely related manner and made his own etchings, including a series after his father's paintings, and the workshop produced replicas. With the etchings, early impressions printed before the plates wore are worth far more than later ones.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
