Tiepolo, Giambattista (1696-1770)
Donna con mandolino (Woman with a Mandolin)
1755–1760
Oil on canvas, 93.7 × 75 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Tiepolo‘s work reflects the culmination of the baroque tradition in Venice. In this painting the artist celebrated the ideal of feminine beauty. The luminous skin portrayed in melting brushwork only serves to heighten the sensuous poetry of the painting. The young woman, Tiepolo‘s favorite model named Cristina, holds an eighteenth-century mandolin and listens to the pitch of the note as she adjusts the keys. The painting is thought to have been commissioned for Catherine the Great, the empress of Russia. (DIA)
See also:
• Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia (1729-1796)