Giovanni Battista Piazzetta Facts for Kids

Self portrait (1730s). This drawing uses charcoal and white on green-grey paper. It is kept at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

The Assumption of Mary (1735). This painting is made with oil on canvas and is part of the Louvre collection.

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (born February 13, 1682 or 1683 – died April 28, 1754) was a famous Italian painter. He created beautiful artworks, often showing religious stories or everyday life scenes. He was also known as Giambattista Piazzetta.

About Piazzetta's Life
Piazzetta's Unique Art Style
Famous Artworks
Gallery
See also

About Piazzetta's Life

Piazzetta was born in Venice. His father, Giacomo Piazzetta, was a sculptor. Giovanni learned wood carving from him early on. In 1697, he began studying painting with Antonio Molinari.

Piazzetta later moved to Bologna from 1703 to 1705. He said he studied with the painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi there. Crespi's art used strong contrasts of light and shadow, called chiaroscuro. This style made ordinary people look charming in his paintings. Piazzetta was also impressed by the altarpieces of Guercino, another Bolognese painter.

Around 1710, Piazzetta returned to Venice. He became a well-known artist, even though he didn't create as many paintings as some others. He was less famous than two other great Venetian artists, Ricci and Tiepolo. However, Piazzetta painted more types of subjects than they did. For example, Tiepolo mostly painted grand historical scenes and religious altarpieces.

Ricci and Tiepolo used bright colors and painted large frescoes on ceilings. Piazzetta's paintings were often darker and more personal. Yet, Tiepolo was influenced by Piazzetta's work. In return, Piazzetta started using brighter colors in his later years, inspired by Tiepolo.

Piazzetta's Unique Art Style

Piazzetta's art used warm, rich colors and had a mysterious, poetic feeling. He often painted ordinary people, like peasants, sometimes in a grand way. He was very original in how he used intense colors in shadows. He also created an otherworldly light that made parts of his paintings stand out.

The way his characters looked and gestured hinted at hidden stories. One of his most famous paintings, The Soothsayer (1740), shows this. He brought a similar mysterious quality to his religious works. An example is the Glory of St. Dominic in the Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo.

Piazzetta also made many detailed drawings. These often showed people from the waist up or groups of heads. He usually used charcoal or black chalk with white highlights on gray paper. These drawings had the same spirit as his paintings. Collectors bought them as artworks on their own. He also created engravings.

In 1750, Piazzetta became the first director of the new Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia (Academy of Fine Arts in Venice). He spent his last years teaching art. He was also chosen as a member of the Accademia Clementina in Bologna in 1727. Many painters studied in his studio, including Domenico Maggiotto and Johann Heinrich Tischbein. The engraver Marco Pitteri worked with him and engraved many of his pieces. Piazzetta passed away in Venice on April 28, 1754.

Famous Artworks

Idyll at Coast (1739-1740).

Here are some of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta's well-known paintings:

St. James Led to Martyrdom (1717)
Madonna and Child appearing to St Philip Neri (1725-1727)
Glory of St. Dominic (1725–1727)
Ecstasy of St. Francis (1732)
Assumption (1735)
St. Margaret of Cortona (1737)
Sacrifice of Isaac (after 1735, unfinished)
Rebecca at the Well (around 1740)
Fortune Teller (1740)
The Pastoral (1739–1741)
The Death of Darius (1746)
Peasant Girl (1720–1722)
Portrait of Giulia Lama (around 1715-1720)
Portrait of a Young Woman in Profile with a Mask in her Right Hand (around 1720-1730)