Descent from the Cross Giovanni Battista Pittoni Descent from the Cross by Giovanni Battista Pittoni, oil on canvas, circa 1750 is now exhibited at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, and Gospel of Luke, descent from the Cross took place in the evening. They also illustrate how Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy disciple wrapped Christs body in linen. According to John, however, the Gospel did not mention the time of day. He also wrote that Joseph of Arimathaea carried away the body of Christ, though. The colors of the painting are black, white, grey, dark-red and brown.
In this highly dramatic version of a Biblical story, John folds Jesuss hand and prays (right), Mary Magdalene swoons (lower left), the Virgin Mary falls with outspread arms (center), Nicodemus holds Christ’s arm (left), and Joseph is on his knees, accepting the body (lower center).
Light is centered on the body of Christ and is coming from an unknown heavenly source. The low angle of view gives viewers an evocative impression of the cross, which is visible above. The author of Descent from the Cross, Giovanni Battista Pittoni (1687 1767) is one of the leading representatives of the Venetian Rococo. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he was ranked on the same level with Tiepolo and Piazzetta. First mentioned in the Libro della Fraglia Veneziana dei Pittori in 1716, he was the nephew and a student of Francesco Pittoni (active in 1687-1712).
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In Pittonis early works, there are ideas of Roman late Baroque painting school, which might have been affected by his contact with Antonio Balestra (1666-1740) who was in Venice in 1700-18. In the 1720s and 30s, Pittoni produced light and energetic pictures, e.g. Nativity of circa 1720-23 (exhibited at Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College) and the vast Justice and Peace with Minerva and Jove of circa1730 (exhibited at Venice, Palazzo Pesaro).
Pittonis nervous brushstrokes expose the influence of G. B. Tiepolo (1696-1770).
According to Art History website: Giovanni Battista (also Giambattista) Tiepolo was the preeminent muralist in the rococo style.
He was born in Venice as the son of a merchant, and studied with various Venetian painters. He, however, was most influenced by the 16th-century Venetian master Paolo Veronese. Some art historians consider Tiepolo a painter of both the Baroque and the Rococo styles. It is true that he was apprenticed in the Venetian School during the Baroque Era that ended around 1730, but he was also greatly inspired by the Rococo and the much brighter colors that were one of the characteristics of Rococo. Tiepolo’s mastery of composition, perspective, color, and light enabled him to take full decorative advantage of architectural spaces. His vast frescoes ignore the boundaries of walls and ceilings, creating convincing illusions of new expanses where biblical, mythological, and historical visions unfold in fluent, elegant lines. (http://arthistory.heindorffhus.dk/frame-Tiepolo.h tm) Pittonis mature works dated from the late 1730s or early 1740s: e.g. Madonna and Child with SS.
Peter, Ambrose and Charles Borromeo, Bedizzole, S. Stefano. These works demonstrate a strong smoothness of form linked to a rich and watery impasto. A stylish and attractive colorist Pittoni was often criticized for too beautiful color by Cochin. Pittoni often suggests an elegant Arcadian mood similar to the contemporary French painting. An additional to lightening of his palette later in Pittonis career, he also went hand in hand with tamer compositions, influenced by the general trend towards Neo-Classicism. Between 1722 and 1730 he created four paintings for McSwiny’s glorious series of allegorical tombs.
He considered von Schulenburg, the Principe Gabrielli in Rome, and the Royal Library in Turin as his chief patrons. In the mid 30s he had regular correspondence with Juvarra on subject of commissions for the royal court in Madrid. Pittonis cabinet pictures of historical and religious subjects were really popular with collectors in Germany, Poland, and Russia, especially by the Elector of Cologne, 1734 and 1749, and later after 1742-3, through Algarotti, by the Saxon Court. Pittoni was Tiepolos successor as Director of the Venetian Academy of Painting and Sculpture between 1758 and 1760. The eighteenth century is perhaps the first period when art freed itself from convictions. No longer did painting need to state religious beliefs, record the natural world or explore space. Significantly, painting held little interest for most of the century’s great intellectuals and elite. The emphasis on decoration often passed unperceived and unnoticed.
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The imaginative painters of the period were working against current academic standards, sometimes with a threat of their own reputations. People felt there would never again be a Raphael, a Poussin, an Annibale Carracci. They could not even hope that there could come painters equally as great, but totally different. Indeed, belief in art as a power had weakened. The eighteenth century could hardly fail to be skeptical and scrutinizing of imagination, for it accomplished so much by its rationality and could advance civilization only by destroying myths. Decorative painting flourished especially at such out of date royal courts like those of France and Spain, and in hopelessly retardataire countries like Italy.
These countries, along with Germany, where numerous petty kingdoms existed, produced the rococo style. The Rococo never established itself in England, where portraits have been much more popular. Rococo was considered as a sort of infame, which needed to be crushed. The age was rational, scientific, and exploratory in all branches of knowledge. People were interested in Sir Isaac Newton, not in nymphs and satyrs. Along with the rococo, and rising as it fell, was a more serious style of painting, firmly based on reality: recording the natural world, or everyday life, whether of people or animals. The neo-classic approach was really part of this, a preference for history over mythology (Poussin’s preference).
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There also was a desire to be factual and accurate in recording the ancient world as well as the modern one. Therefore, most neo-classical artists, as well as being history painters, were excellent portraitists.
Venice, in the eighteenth century was a city of fantasy wilder than anything one could imagine. Views of Venice were in demand throughout Europe, especially in England. Even through Giovanni Battista Pittoni lived during the Rococo period and was the follower of the Battista, his Descent from the Cross was not typically Rococo. The painting has a religious theme, whereas Rococo motifs were mostly centered on aristocratic themes, romance, nature and exterior settings. Descent from the Cross, can be more attributed to neo-classicism, which can be considered as a revival of Renaissance and other classical styles. Because of the general apathetic attitude of society towards visual arts in Italy, Pittonis paintings, including Descent from the Cross did not become as popular and famous as works of Leonardo DiVinci, for example.
It can be suggested that a genius was born in a wrong time, in a wrong setting that did not appreciate him and his talent to its fullest potential. Descent from the Cross can be called one of the greatest religious painting works and a bright representation of Venetian art school of the 18th century.
Bibliography:
Art History: http://arthistory.heindorffhus.dk/frame-Tiepolo.ht m http://www.europeanpaintings.com/exhibits/xviiicen t/pittbio.htm Image of the painting taken from: http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?record=644 35&=list&=1&=&=And http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/pittoni_giova nni_battista.html.
