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Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo decorated with frescoes the family villa at Zianigo which his father, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo had bought on his return from the task of decorating the Prince-Bishop's palace in Würzburg and which he had restored and altered to his own needs. The frescoes were painted over a fairly long period of time: between 1759 - the date shown on one of the monochrome scenes from the chapel - and 1797 - according to a now lost inscription read at the beginning of the twentieth century in a mural scene in the Pulcinella Room. Almost all the frescoes in the small Zianigo villa were detached in 1906 and in 1936 they were moved to the Ca' Rezzonico and placed in small rooms, in a recomposition that closely repeats the original one, though with some differences and overlapping.
The frescoes in the villa depict the stories of Pulcinella (also Punchinello, a classical character that originated in the Commedia dell'arte of the 17th century), scenes of villa life, games, the wars and affections of satyrs and fauns. It is a comprehensive cycle which Giovanni Domenico painted for himself in successive stages in the non-monumental rooms of the country house. When completed, the whole Zianigo work was a kind of grand recapitulation of many aspects and idiosyncrasies of Giovanni Domenico's art, while also representing the cultural passing of a period and a style. It is almost a pictorial testament which, while valuing the past, did not conceal the drama of the present nor the uncertainty of the future.
In the Pulcinella Room, the absolute protagonist of the decoration is Pulcinella. The gaunt figure in the Neapolitan mask dominates the room. On the ceiling The Swing of Pulcinella is depicted. The three large wall scenes depicts Pulcinella in Love, Pulcinella and the Tumblers, and Pulcinella's Departure. Four monochrome scenes above the doors, two of them oblong in format, complete the decoration of the upper portion of the room.
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