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Virtue and Nobility Crowning Love
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian (Venetian), 1696–1770)
about 1759–61
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
377.2 x 302.9 cm (148 1/2 x 119 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Maria Antoinette Evans Fund
Accession Number30.539
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Tiepolo was one of Europe's most sought-after artists of decorative paintings. This work once decorated the ceiling of a room-perhaps a bedroom-in a palace owned by the Mocenigo family on Venice's Grand Canal. The figure who wears yellow and holds a statuette almost certainly represents Nobility; the winged figure with the sun is likely Virtue; and the female nude seated on the clouds is probably Venus. The painting may have been made to celebrate a Mocenigo family wedding. The MFA acquired the painting in 1930 without its frame; a quarter-century later, the original gilded frame was found in the palace's attic, and the two were reunited.
ProvenanceAbout 1759-1761, Alvise Mocenigo family, Palazzo Mocenigo (Casa Nuova) at S. Samuele, Venice (original commission) [see note 1]; by descent within the Mocenigo family; 1878, palace inherited by the Robilant family; by descent within the family to the Conte di Robilant, Palazzo Mocenigo (Casa Nuova) at S. Samuele, Venice; about 1930, removed from the Casa Nuova and sold by the Conte di Robilant to Durlacher Brothers, New York [see note 2]; 1930, sold by Durlacher to the MFA for $58,711. (Accession Date: July 17, 1930)
NOTES:
[1] Stefania Mason, "Il Caso Mocenigo di San Samuele," in Il collezionismo d'arte a Venezia, ed. Linda Borean and Stefania Mason (Venice, 2009), p. 185, has suggested that the commission of this ceiling painting can be associated with the marriage of Alvise V Sebastiano Mocenigo to Chiara Zen in 1759, was probably executed by Tiepolo between 1760 and 1762.
[2] The dealer Harold W. Parsons, Rome, acted as an intermediary for this sale. In 1954, Parsons also acted the intermediary for the acquisition of the frame, which had been detached from the canvas and discovered only after the sale of the painting to the MFA.
NOTES:
[1] Stefania Mason, "Il Caso Mocenigo di San Samuele," in Il collezionismo d'arte a Venezia, ed. Linda Borean and Stefania Mason (Venice, 2009), p. 185, has suggested that the commission of this ceiling painting can be associated with the marriage of Alvise V Sebastiano Mocenigo to Chiara Zen in 1759, was probably executed by Tiepolo between 1760 and 1762.
[2] The dealer Harold W. Parsons, Rome, acted as an intermediary for this sale. In 1954, Parsons also acted the intermediary for the acquisition of the frame, which had been detached from the canvas and discovered only after the sale of the painting to the MFA.