Piazzetta, Giovanni Battista

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, also called Giambattista Piazetta, (born Feb. 13, 1682, Venice [Italy]—died April 28, 1754, Venice), painter, illustrator, and designer who was one of the outstanding Venetian artists of the 18th century. His art evolved from Italian Baroque traditions of the 17th century to a Rococo manner in his mature style.

Piazzetta began his career in the studio of his father, Giacomo, a woodcarver. Soon after assisting the latter to carve the still-surviving bookcases of the library of the Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, he abandoned the family profession and began to study painting under Antonio Molinari. In about 1703 he went to Bologna, where he worked in the studio of Giuseppi Maria Crespi. He was back in Venice by 1711 and continued to work there until his death.

Little is known of the dating of Piazzetta’s paintings, especially those of his youth. His “St. James Led to Martyrdom” (Venice) dates to 1717; at this period he was a powerful influence on the young Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who was to become the most famous Venetian painter of the 18th century. In about 1725–27 he undertook his only ceiling painting, the “Glorification of St. Dominic,” for the Chapel of the Sacrament in Santi Giovanni e Paolo. The “Ecstasy of St. Francis,” perhaps his finest religious work, dates from about 1732, and some three years later he was commissioned to execute an “Assumption” for the elector of Cologne. The celebrated “Fortune Teller” is dated 1740. “The Pastoral” and the “Idyll by the Seashore,” both in the same Rococo-pastoral vein, must have been painted about the same time or a little before. In his last years he carried out a number of large-scale decorations with subjects taken from classical history.

In 1727 Piazzetta was elected a member of the Clementine Academy of Bologna, and, on the foundation of the Venetian Academy in 1750, he was made its first director and teacher of drawing from the nude. He was a very slow worker and in spite of his popularity was compelled to produce innumerable drawings for sale to support his large family.