The Assumption of the Virgin
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice 1696 – Madrid 1770)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1720 - 1770
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
533 mm (21 in) (diameter)
Place of origin
Veneto
Order this imageCollection
Ascott Estate, Buckinghamshire
NT 1535125
Caption
The apocryphal story of the Assumption of the Virgin, retold in the medieval Golden Legend, and now a Church festival celebrated on the 15th August, is denoted as the moment when the Virgin Mary’s soul and body are taken up to heaven by angels, three days after her death. Here the apostles, gathered around her tomb, look up in awe whilst Saint Peter has his arms raised aloft as if he has just elevated her. This circular composition is close to a study preserved in the cathedral of San Daniele del Fruili, just north of Udine, for a ceiling fresco by Tiepolo in the Church of the Fratta at Friuli, which was never executed. It has been associated with three other sketches for the ceiling similar in iconography and style of around 1735. It probably belonged to the artist's widow, Cecilia Guardi, an inveterate gambler, who is said to have lost her entire collection of her husband’s sketches on a throw of a dice.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Assumption of the Virgin by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice 1696 – Madrid 1770). In the centre is the Virgin Mary, supported by putti and angels on clouds. The Apostles are grasping on the perimeter on either side of her sarcophagus. This composition, a study for a ceiling, is close to a modello preserved in the Cathedral at San Daniele del Friuli of around 1735, for the ceiling in the Church of the Fratta at Friuli, which was never executed.
Provenance
Edward Cheney (1803-1884) of Badger Hall, Shropshire by 1857 (with 19 other such sketches); his sale Christie's 29th April 1885, lot 162; bought by Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea (1843-1907); his wife, Constance de Rothschild, Lady Battersea (1843-1931) - daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothschild, 1st Bt; by descent; given to the National Trust by Anthony de Rothschild (1887- 1961) with the house in 1949
Credit line
Ascott, The Anthony de Rothschild Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice 1696 – Madrid 1770), artist
References
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich, 1794-1868 Galleries and cabinets of art in Great Britain : 1854., p. 173 Sack 1910 E. Sack, G. B. and D. Tiepolo, 1910, no. 548 Morassi 1962 A. Morassi, Catalogue of Paintings of G. B. Tiepolo, 1962, p.2, fig. 106 Ascott, Buckinghamshire, Scala, 2008 by John Martin Robinson and others [pictures entries by Karin Wolfe on basis of Gore entries, 1963 with contributions from Alastair Laing] , no. 111