IL MONDO NUOVO - Giandomenico Tiepolo - 1791, Ca'Rezzonico, Venice
Il Mondo Nuovo
In 1791, the younger Tiepolo - Giandomenico - retired to Villa Zianigo, his private home on the Venetian mainland.
There, for his own pleasure, he began a series of frescos the largest of which is now known as IL MONDO NUOVO *.
The title was in fact given to the work a century later when it was removed from the walls of his villa and eventually installed in the palazzo, Ca’ Rezzonico.
In an age of strutting Rococo arrogance, the life size figures in Tiepolo’s painting present an image of vulnerable innocence and deep sadness. Seen from behind as anti-portraits, they lean away from us, anxiously searching into the inner spaces of the picture.
1791 - the year of Tiepolo’s MONDO NUOVO – had another significance. The Venetian Empire, the oldest the world had ever known, was now in its death throes - finally expiring six years later in 1797.
Tiepolo must have sensed the coming of the end and the uncertainties the future had in store. In this very private work there is a searching for answers. Through the gestures of his actors, he expresses his own anxieties and uncertainties for his own future as well as that of his society in general (in Il Mondo Nuovo, every group and age of contemporary Venice is depicted).
Tiepolo’s "Il Mondo Nuovo", seems to depict a moment remarkably similar to the one we now face in our own post-BREXIT Britain.
Alan Smith - 1st July 2016
There, for his own pleasure, he began a series of frescos the largest of which is now known as IL MONDO NUOVO *.
The title was in fact given to the work a century later when it was removed from the walls of his villa and eventually installed in the palazzo, Ca’ Rezzonico.
In an age of strutting Rococo arrogance, the life size figures in Tiepolo’s painting present an image of vulnerable innocence and deep sadness. Seen from behind as anti-portraits, they lean away from us, anxiously searching into the inner spaces of the picture.
1791 - the year of Tiepolo’s MONDO NUOVO – had another significance. The Venetian Empire, the oldest the world had ever known, was now in its death throes - finally expiring six years later in 1797.
Tiepolo must have sensed the coming of the end and the uncertainties the future had in store. In this very private work there is a searching for answers. Through the gestures of his actors, he expresses his own anxieties and uncertainties for his own future as well as that of his society in general (in Il Mondo Nuovo, every group and age of contemporary Venice is depicted).
Tiepolo’s "Il Mondo Nuovo", seems to depict a moment remarkably similar to the one we now face in our own post-BREXIT Britain.
Alan Smith - 1st July 2016
* In the Northern Italy of the mid to late 18th century, the MONDO NUOVO or NEW WORLD was a kind of early travelling cinema, consisting of a simple diorama projecting images onto a wall.