It looks like a salon in a grand 18th century hôtel particulier in Paris, doesn’t it?
A salon in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA), Lisbon.
In fact, this salon is from the Paar Palace in Vienna, but it’s now installed in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA) in Lisbon. I apologize for the slight blurriness of these images. The light was difficult. I also apologize for the inadvertent selfie!
Tiepolo was the last great Venetian master, apart from the view painters Canaletto, Bellotto, and Guardi. I was delighted to find 3 of Tiepolo’s smaller works in the collection of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA) in Lisbon when I visited there last April (2016).
Born in 1696, Giambattista Tiepolo trained in the studio of Lazzarini before being accepted into the Venetian painters guild in 1717. He was also influenced by his study of the great Venetian masters of the past, such as Veronese and Tintoretto. His success seems to have been almost immediate. Eventually, his renown spread across Europe and he accepted commissions in Germany, notably in the Residenz at Würzburg, and later in Spain. He died in Madrid in 1770.
Here is a view of the Tiepolo wall at the MNAA.
A trio of small Tiepolo works in the MNAA.
Today we pay another visit to Lisbon’s Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA)* to have a look at Fragonard’s ‘The Two Cousins.’ As I’ve said in a previous post, Portugal is actually a great place to see French fine and decorative art because the Portuguese aristocracy collected it with such enthusiasm.
Fragonard’s ‘The Two Cousins’ as seen in the MNAA.
We’re switching gears now.
The Versailles Century was led by France, but it played out all over Europe, indeed the world, as we’ll see in due course. This post is the first of several inspired by my travels in Portugal in April of 2016, when I visited Porto and Lisbon after leaving Paris and Versailles. I’m going to bring you words and images about all the Versailles Century art and architecture I found in Europe’s westernmost Latin country. As it happens, Portugal is a great place to see French fine and decorative art because the Portuguese elite was so heavily influenced by French taste. Versailles lovers, don’t despair — there will be many more posts about the Chateau in future!
I don’t know about you, but when I think of 18th century painting, a handful of artists spring immediately to mind. Two that leap fastest are Canaletto (1697-1768) and Bellotto (1721-1780), probably the most famous uncle and nephew artists in history, both known best for their cityscapes. It was my luck that when I visited the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (the National Museum of Ancient Art) in Lisbon, there was a special exhibition of a work by Bellotto. The museum, which we’ll call MNAA for short, went all out to highlight it:
