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Piazzetta was the son of a wood carver from whom he inherited his taste for sculpturally solid figures and a wonderful gift for engraving. His career included an unusual episode for a Venetian painter. From 1703-05, in fact, he studied in Bologna with Giuseppe Maria Crespi, being inspired by Crespi's dramatic use of chiaroscuro. Piazzetta was also excited by Guercino's altarpieces with their "big splashes" of colour. The immediate effect of these influences was that he developed a dramatic pictorial style with tremendous emotional power.
He tended to use strong chiaroscuro, contrasting brilliantly-lit areas and others plunged into shade. His palette contained a lot of muted browns, partly due to which his pictures convey a strong religious feeling. However, thanks to his contacts with Tiepolo (with whom he worked in the church of the Gesuati and who had been at first influenced by him) Piazzetta's work gradually became lighter and more luminous, although he never painted frescos. Even when decorating the ceiling of a chapel (in the church of S. Zanipolo) he painted on canvas. Piazzetta produced many fine secular compositions for collectors. Among these we should mention his famous Fortune Teller in the Accademia in Venice or his Rebecca at the Well in the Brera in Milan. He was also an excellent illustrator and engraver. Finally, Piazzetta played a key role in teaching and was one of the founders of the Venetian Academy of Fine Art.
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