The Artist: Together with Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Piazzetta is the defining figurative painter in eighteenth-century Venice. A brilliant draftsman (see
1972.118.266 and
1972.118.267)—black chalk heightened with white on blue paper was his preferred medium—his paintings, with their dark palette, dramatic lighting and lower-class figures, create a world that contrasts notably with the idealizing, brilliant-colored universe of Tiepolo. In his 1760 "Memorie intorno alla vita di Giambattista Piazzetta," his biographer G. B. Albrizzi described the artist as, "of average stature, with a pleasant face of sharp intelligence, and not at all uncultured, with courteous and pleasing manners, although a lover of solitude and thus a trifle melancholy. He did not care greatly for honours and neither for his own interest. He lived in love with his art, on which it may be said he spent every day and thought of his life."[1] From his apprenticeship with the Venetian painter Antonio Molinari (1655–1704) he was introduced to the renewed interest in Venice of a dark, tenebrist style of painting. At the age of twenty he traveled to Bologna, where he was attracted to the art of Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665–1747), the leading painter of the city and someone who, like Piazzetta, was committed to the close observation of everyday life, which was endowed with emotional vibrancy and physical density through the use of a dark palette and a dramatic use of light. It was through Crespi that Piazzetta acquired his taste for genre painting (see
2016.653 and
36.144; also the two drawings cited above). He was much impressed by the work of the Carracci and of Guercino. Indeed, his art establishes a bond with the reform of painting initiated by the Carracci in the 1580s (for which, see
1994.142). Upon his return to Venice (by 1705) he established himself, becoming much sought after. His opinions on paintings were sought by collectors such as the King of Poland, Count Brühl, and the Marshal von der Schulenburg, and he served as Prior of the Collegio dei Pittori on multiple occasions. He also produced book illustrations, working with the Venetian publisher Giambattista Albrizzi. Again like the Carracci, he established a place where artists could draw from nude models (the young Tiepolo seems to have been a participant) and in 1750 he was appointed director of the Scuola del Nudo established by the Venetian state. There are major altarpieces in the churches of San Vidal, Santa Maria della Fava, and Santa Maria del Rosario, Venice, and a major ceiling in Santi Giovanni e Paolo.
The Picture: The subject of the Annunciation is told in the Gospel of Luke (1:26–33) and is one of the most frequently depicted scenes in Western painting. Piazzetta interprets this traditional subject afresh, but with clear references to some celebrated pictures. He imagines the young Virgin Mary standing, interrupted at her devotions, and with great dignity turning toward the angel Gabriel, who is depicted flying into her bedchamber through an open window, arms outstretched, accompanied by the dove of the Holy Spirit. The room is a simple one, as is the clay pot on the floor at left (possibly an allusion to the invocation in the Litanies of the Virgin (or the Litany of Loreto, based on a centuries-old tradition but first officially approved in 1587) as: "Spiritual vessel, Vessel of honour, Singular vessel of devotion. . . ."). The Virgin is illuminated by the divine light emanating from above and behind the dove and thus from God. The shutter of the window opens toward the viewer and a curtain at the right is drawn back as though to reveal the scene.
Pictorial Sources: Whether this wonderfully theatrical picture was an independent work or a study (
modello) for an altarpiece cannot be said with certainty. The inspiration for the composition has been identified as a celebrated work painted by Francesco Albani for the church of San Bartolomeo, Bologna in 1632.[2] Albani’s painting, in which—as in Piazzetta’s picture—a standing Virgin turns toward a flying angel, was much admired for its
bell’angelo well into the eighteenth century. Presumably, Piazzetta studied the work firsthand, in Bologna, where he was associated with Giuseppe Maria Crespi. He shared Crespi’s preference for a dark palette enhanced by a dramatic use of light and his grounding of his scenes in everyday life. In this way, Piazzetta has transformed the elevated, classical visual language behind Albani’s picture. On the other hand, the way Gabriel sweeps into the humble bedchamber through an open window amidst billowing clouds, with the dove hovering over his head, was clearly inspired by Tintoretto’s no less famous painting in the lower floor of the Scuola di San Rocco. Tintoretto also emphasized the humble dwelling of the Virgin—his Annunciation takes place in the ruins of what had been an impressive palace, now fallen into ruins—but Tintoretto’s figures, with their athletic proportions and gestures, are a far cry from the more human, more plebian figures Piazzetta preferred. The picture may date from the years around 1720.
Keith Christiansen 2019
[1] Cited by Adriano Mariuz in his entry in
The Dicitonary of Art, New York, 1996, vol. 24, p. 707.
[2] See Catherine R. Puglisi,
Francesco Albani, New Haven, 1999, pp. 33–34, 155, no. 69.
