TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista
(b. 1696, Venezia, d. 1770, Madrid)

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (detail)

1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

The fresco's trompe l'oeil columns ennoble the villa's simple architecture and set the stage for the dreadful sacrifice. But the goddess Diana sends a small hind, illusionistically represented on the fresco's far left-hand side, to replace the Greek princess at the altar.