Frescoes in the Villa Valmarana ai Nani in Vicenza (1757)
by Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO

In 1757, Tiepolo and his son Giandomenico were invited to Vicenza to fresco rooms in the modestly scaled Palazzina in the Villa Valmarana ai Nani and in the adjoining guest quarters, the so-called 'foresteria'. Their patron was Count Giustino Valmarana (1688-1757), a scholar and theater enthusiast. The villa takes the name "ai nani" ("of the dwarfs") from the travertine figures set up in the garden, which portrays in the fashion of the time the different social classes in the form of grotesquely deformed dwarfs.

Tiepolo frescoed the vestibule (portego) and four ground-floor rooms of the villa (the Palazzina), while his son executed the decoration in the adjacent guest house (the Foresteria). In addition to the frescoes in the Foresteria, Giovanni Domenico also painted figural elements in the Palazzina, in part after his father's design, in part on his own. As for the large-figure scenes, there was apparently no strict division of labour between the Palazzina and the Foresteria. The elder Tiepolo painted one room in the Foresteria, and his son was drafted to paint specific figures in the Palazzina. Despite his considerable share in the painting and its originality, Giandomenico remained in his fathers's shadow.

Giandomenico's lively genre scenes featuring peasants and merchants were intended to form a marked contrast with Giambattista's noble and tragic themes in the Villa, borrowed from famous works of Greek, Roman, and Italian literature. The Iliad of Homer (c. 750-650 BC), the Aeneid of Virgil (70-19 BC), Orlando furioso by Ariosto (1474-1533) and Gerusalemme liberata by Tasso (1544-1595) were the sources for the different scenes which, because of the small, almost intimate proportions of the rooms, are narrated with a certain simplicity and using a limited number of figures.

The characteristic element of the frescoes in the Villa Valmarana is the way in which the representations have been conceived as theatrical scenes, in which the various heroes act as if on the stage.

Preview Picture Data File Info Comment
View of the portego
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1143*1400
True Color
251 Kb



The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
1757
Fresco, 350 x 700 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1700*888
True Color
196 Kb



The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1029*1300
True Color
184 Kb



The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1150*1400
True Color
230 Kb



The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1200*1004
True Color
167 Kb



The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

952*1200
True Color
193 Kb



Soldiers between columns
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

909*1400
True Color
149 Kb



Soldiers between columns (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

900*1203
True Color
190 Kb



The Greek Fleet in Aulis
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1025*1400
True Color
210 Kb



View of the room of Homer
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1089*1400
True Color
234 Kb



Eurybates and Talthybios Lead Briseis to Agamemmon
1757
Fresco, 300 x 280 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1200*1130
True Color
195 Kb



Eurybates and Talthybios Lead Briseis to Agamemmon (detail)
1757
Fresco, 300 x 280 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1151*1400
True Color
230 Kb



Eurybates and Talthybios Lead Briseis to Agamemmon
1757
Fresco, 300 x 280 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1030*880
True Color
175 Kb



The Rage of Achilles
1757
Fresco, 300 x 300 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1000*1201
True Color
236 Kb



Thetis Consoling Achilles
1757
Fresco, 300 x 200 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1096*1400
True Color
225 Kb



Landscape with Cupid
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

938*1600
True Color
222 Kb



Landscape with Cupid (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1085*608
True Color
125 Kb



View of the room of Ariosto
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1143*1400
True Color
277 Kb



View of the room of Ariosto
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1464*900
True Color
222 Kb



Orlando Rescues Angelica from a Monster
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1095*1400
True Color
241 Kb



Orlando Rescues Angelica from a Monster
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1000*1202
True Color
236 Kb



Angelica Carving Medoro's Name on a Tree
1757
Fresco, 320 x 160 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1055*1400
True Color
241 Kb



Angelica Carving Medoro's Name on a Tree
1757
Fresco, 320 x 160 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

886*1400
True Color
236 Kb



Angelica and Medoro with the Shepherds
1757
Fresco, 250 x 250 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1152*1400
True Color
256 Kb



Angelica and Medoro with the Shepherds
1757
Fresco, 250 x 250 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1107*1100
True Color
239 Kb



Angelica and Medoro with the Shepherds (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

950*1200
True Color
246 Kb



Angelica Nurses Medoro's Wounds
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1100*1156
True Color
247 Kb



Angelica Nurses Medoro's Wounds (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

955*1200
True Color
241 Kb



View of the room of Virgil
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1124*1400
True Color
229 Kb



Venus Appearing to Aeneas on the Shores of Carthage
1757
Fresco, 230 x 180 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1152*1400
True Color
235 Kb



Venus Appearing to Aeneas on the Shores of Carthage
1757
Fresco, 230 x 180 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1000*1352
True Color
207 Kb



Aeneas Introducing Cupid Dressed as Ascanius to Dido
1757
Fresco, 230 x 240 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1200*1063
True Color
208 Kb



Aeneas Introducing Cupid Dressed as Ascanius to Dido
1757
Fresco, 230 x 240 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

962*950
True Color
162 Kb



Aeneas Introducing Cupid Dressed as Ascanius to Dido (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1000*1248
True Color
222 Kb



Aeneas Introducing Cupid Dressed as Ascanius to Dido (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

950*1145
True Color
225 Kb



Mercury Appearing to Aeneas
1757
Fresco, 230 x 145 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

750*1158
True Color
153 Kb



Mercury Appearing to Aeneas (detail)
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1000*1212
True Color
239 Kb



The Sorceress Armida Spies on the Sleeping Rinaldo
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1151*1400
True Color
253 Kb



Rinaldo and Armida in the Magic Garden
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1088*1400
True Color
258 Kb



Rinaldo and Armida in the Magic Garden
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1000*1203
True Color
237 Kb



Rinaldo's Companions Hold the Magic Mirror up to His Face
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1090*1400
True Color
230 Kb



Rinaldo Abandoning Armida
1757
Fresco, 220 x 310 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1214*1000
True Color
221 Kb



Rinaldo Abandoning Armida
1757
Fresco, 220 x 310 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1061*770
True Color
152 Kb



Rinaldo Abandoning Armida (detail)
1757
Fresco, 220 x 310 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1155*1400
True Color
231 Kb



Apollo and Diana
1757
Fresco, 200 x 185 cm
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1207*770
True Color
152 Kb



Mars, Venus, and Amor
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1156*1400
True Color
212 Kb



Jupiter
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

1086*1400
True Color
217 Kb



Chronos
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

595*1400
True Color
114 Kb



Mercury
1757
Fresco
Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

588*1400
True Color
113 Kb



Design for Apollo
c. 1757
Pencil, wash over black crayon, 207 x 163 mm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

660*750
True Color
66 Kb




Summary of works by Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO
Great fresco decorations
Patriarchal Palace, Udine (1726)
Villa Loschi, Biron di Monteviale (1734) | Palazzo Labia, Venice (1746-47)
Residenz, Würzburg (1751-53) | Villa Valmarana, Vicenza (1757)
Royal Palace, Madrid (1762-66)
Various paintings and decorations
up to 1740 | 1740s | 1751-70