Piazzetta, Giovanni Batttisa (1682c.-1754) - Rebecca at the Well (Pinocoteca di Brera, Milan)
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was an Italian rococo painter of religious subjects and genre scenes. Starting in 1697 he studied with the painter Antonio Molinari. He found inspiration in Crespi's art, in which the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio was transformed into an idiom of graceful charm.
Piazzetta created an art of warm, rich color and a mysterious poetry. He often depicted peasantry, even if often in a grand fashion. He was highly original in the intensity of color he sometimes used in his shadows, and in the otherworldly quality he gave to the light which throws part of a composition into relief. The gestures and glances of his protagonists hint at unseen dramas, as in one of his best-known paintings, The Soothsayer(1740, now in Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice). Also notable are his many carefully rendered drawings of half-length figures or groups of heads. Usually in charcoal or black chalk with white heightening on gray paper, these are filled with the same spirit that animates his paintings, and were purchased by collectors. He also produced engravings.
In 1750 Piazzetta became the first director of the newly founded Scuola di Nudo, and he devoted himself in the last few years of his life to teaching. He was elected a member of the Bolognese Accademia Clementina in 1727.
Piazzetta, Giovanni Batttisa (1682c.-1754) - Rebecca at the Well (Pinocoteca di Brera, Milan)
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was an Italian rococo painter of religious subjects and genre scenes. Starting in 1697 he studied with the painter Antonio Molinari. He found inspiration in Crespi's art, in which the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio was transformed into an idiom of graceful charm.
Piazzetta created an art of warm, rich color and a mysterious poetry. He often depicted peasantry, even if often in a grand fashion. He was highly original in the intensity of color he sometimes used in his shadows, and in the otherworldly quality he gave to the light which throws part of a composition into relief. The gestures and glances of his protagonists hint at unseen dramas, as in one of his best-known paintings, The Soothsayer(1740, now in Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice). Also notable are his many carefully rendered drawings of half-length figures or groups of heads. Usually in charcoal or black chalk with white heightening on gray paper, these are filled with the same spirit that animates his paintings, and were purchased by collectors. He also produced engravings.
In 1750 Piazzetta became the first director of the newly founded Scuola di Nudo, and he devoted himself in the last few years of his life to teaching. He was elected a member of the Bolognese Accademia Clementina in 1727.