Memory plays a different part

Nicole Page-Smith

Memory plays a different part

Focusing on the Leonardo painting "The Virgin of the Rocks" (1483-1486), you notice the difference between the London, National Gallery, painting and there is really only limited similarity. The London Leonardo looks badly restored and overly cleaned whereas the Louvre painting looks like another group of assistants finished the Christ Child and St. John or completed the rest of the painting. The Louvre is a nicer gallery to view art and more of a place for quieter contemplation but on a par with the quality of art on display in the National Gallery. Perhaps with the Leonardo and only the beginning of an understanding of perspective most of the painting appears too frontal and almost in reverse. You notice with taking a photograph the same quality occurs so, perhaps the amount of graphic work Leonardo completed contributed. The impression of Leonardo painting is almost like a page of writing. The visual information speaks to you and provides pointers for the imagination to wander. Italians are very vocal to the point of a dialogue being understood and the paintings appear to talk themselves although not a spoken language. Modern interpretations of art may overlook the time of the Renaissance painting or when the painting was painted but with this consideration you are left with an image. Memory plays a different part.

Time is of the essence: a sensibility of taste

Nicole Page-Smith

Time is of the essence:

a sensibility of taste

Several trips to Europe followed, before in Paris, at the Lourve, I ascended to the painting department on the top floor. There are signs saying Leonard's Mona Lisa is this way. Other Leonardo da Vinci paintings appeal. "The Virgin of the Rocks" painting similar to the Leonardo in the National Gallery in London is much more pleasant to look at. Previous trips to the Louvre were either spent looking at Italian sculpture in the basement or Hellenistic sculpture from the Borghese collection. The Canova Cupid and Psyche is another highlight. The Italian paintings settle in my mind and maybe from several exhibitions visited throughout Italy my mind was piqued to their mystery. The sensibility of Italian painting is of its own culture and has a religious quality. You feel you are invited into the paintings as the world of the artist and their patrons. Although, some works are from the altarpieces of churches you do not feel as though you were graced with the mantlepiece works from someone's loungeroom more you are allowed access to an artist's studio. Details are sketchy about who the paintings were often painted for and nor do we know the sensibility of individual collectors other than a sensibility of taste.

Time is of the essence

Nicole Page-Smith

Time is of the essence

Reminded of the light of London and Richmond Park where the deer flock. We visited parks during the day as by four in the afternoon during winter you experience the opposite of the Southern Hemisphere and it is dark. The light also feels as though it is in reverse and the mourning light feels like late afternoon. Staying near a woodland, parkland was all around London, famous for its parks and gardens as Venice would be famous for its light. We are left with the intellect and the spirit of Tiepolo. Rococo was a style fashionable in France for natural form and nature while other artists of the time where more decorative as with Francois Boucher, Jean-Honore Fragonard and Antoine Watteau, they are also very serious paintings. Seduced not by the fashion or education, you feel Tiepolo may have walked in the morning or at lunch. However, maybe the sunset was all Tiepolo was thinking perhaps the memory but the spirit's light. The lightness of palette of Tiepolo does suggest a time of day. Time is god in the general understanding of the god Chronos but in the darkened corner of the painting, "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758), appears to take us to the shadows. The allegory of the Greek god Time would have more poetic resonance for the Italian painter, Tiepolo. Time is of the essence. 

By Nicole Page-Smith

Tiepolo's spirit reflects time

Nicole Page-Smith

Tiepolo's spirit reflects time

One wonders in the passing of age, the reflection. The feeling of the body as the body pulls down to the earth and separates. Our spirit although, attached until death has the physical body separate. We are only a physical lump of matter because of gravity. Venus in the phase of the moon. An angel has spoken to you at birth about your death but we do not hear him. The same angel speaks to you at your death. The spirit in passing is our angel and takes you unto thee. The spiritual association in Tiepolo's painting is phenomenal. However, we do not feel anything to do with death when contemplating the light of Tiepolo's spirit. The Rococo style did have nature as the main idea but, far from natural paintings of the landscape, painted outside, mostly the fresco paintings were painted in a studio. You feel with Tiepolo's painting despite the decorative style and contemplation of the sky, all the devices of the Renaissance lead you through the picture plane. I wonder why an aerial view meant vacant seats in front of the National Gallery painting, "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758)? Time may be the sticking point. A spiritual vocation is the job of an artist and despite the day job Tiepolo held at the Accademia in Venice, you do not feel the paintings were painted at night. Fresco painting does dry quite quickly and unlike oil painting dries in one day so, perhaps this method of painting allowed for daily visits to the painting for several hours. You almost feel when looking at Tiepolo's painting, you are entering his spirit. Tiepolo's spirit reflects time.

The light of the spirit

Nicole Page-Smith

The light of the spirit

Nature is the purpose of the spirit with Tiepolo's painting, to the point of the subject matter being as a background almost hangover of an education. The airy fashion of the day although very decorative is concerned with nature. The very Venetian sky in all Tiepolo's works with the odd pigeon or dove flying around takes you past the consciousness of the  seventeen-hundreds to the point of wanting your own ceiling to be decorated with a Tiepolo. Other than having a skylight and viewing the sky itself, the naturalism of Tiepolo masterpieces takes you spirit on a journey to god. The journey of the spirit is the subject matter and an inner Tiepolo light. In all of Tiepolo's genre you get a Romantic view of nature and the clouds, reminding you of Venice. The spiritual vocation was also an education but you feel Tiepolo's masterful output takes you to the clouds. Hanging in the clouds like a naked Venus one is made to feel as useless as the subject matter, to Tiepolo. Although, Tiepolo's spiritual paintings are transcendent and heavenly bound as the spirit. Time, the darkened presence in the foreground of the allegorical painting, "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758), does very much reflect you could imagine the elderly, gentleman, painting. The very strange feeling Chronos communicates as the god of Time would suggest, makes you wonder if Tiepolo was trying to escape something other than death. All Tiepolo paintings take you to the light of the spirit.

Speak of the age

Nicole Page-Smith

Speak of the age

The aerial view in Tiepolo's painting reminding us of flight and nature, often with a large expansion of sky and scarcely placed birds as a compositional tool, leads your eye through the painting. The play of light often feels like the sky of Venice, an Italian town facing the sea. Although, we are aware of the popularity of subject matter in Tiepolo's Allegorical paintings, the sky and the clouds have nature as a religious light, the spiritual quality and, almost the Holy Spirit equaling the birds but sometimes the spirit. The sky as some spiritual entity and god, you would image hard to paint and despite the chubby cupids and angels is always the main veil or presence of the work. The depth of the skull is noticed where, some believe the spirit to reside, is in the mind. Our connection to god and the holy spirit is the head as though god could be imagined. Maybe I have been as seduced as the patrons of Tiepolo. However, you would like to feel the presence of Tiepolo's spiritual and religious concern to go beyond the fashion of the day. Time resembling the god Chronos in, "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758), with Time looking very much like some demonic, street urchin, we do imagine does bare a resemblance to the weight of the age of the artist Tiepolo, an artist in his seventieth year due to die some four years later. The light and Venus drift off into the clouds. The spirit of Jesus does speak of the age.

Nature and the clouds

Nicole Page-Smith

Nature and the clouds

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was making a very educated painting about the spirit of man.  "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758) painted in the time of the Rococo, would have been considered an academic subject to suit a wealthy class of patronage. Other intellectual concern of the High Renaissance and bordering Neo-Classicism would also be the fashion and taste for the subject matter. A general consciousness would pervade. We have to remember in the seventeen-hundreds we have not had the expansion of intellect through modern art. Venus is the star to follow. Venus is in association with the flavour of the moon. You would not be able to see Venus without the moon in the night sky. Tiepolo associates his artistic concern with a spiritual vocation as with a priest. The spiritual concern of man is a vocation but also an education among a wealthy variety of upper-class nobility. Ceiling painting you could only imagine in the sort of places you currently see them in today, libraries and museums. Tiepolo was commissioned work in other cities, countries and centres but, Venice as tourism would suggest today had merchants from varying places possibly buying Venetian glass. Perhaps the reflection on the glass is significant as the reflection of the spirit on the water. We would equate Tiepolo's reflection of the spirit not with narcissism but himself and a general consciousness of the age. Perhaps without sanitation, Venice, in the seventeen-hundreds was not a pleasant place to live. Reminded of a class of nobility, I could imagine Tiepolo travelled, frequently, possibly for social reasons. Intellectual concerns would suggest otherwise, though, where we are taken back to nature and the clouds. 

Venus rides the clouds

Nicole Page-Smith

Venus rides the clouds

Time lingers but Venus was her maid. The phase of Venus, Roman mythology and poetry, are something very Italian. Perhaps the stars would be visible over Venice, especially Venus at sunset, at certain times of the year. However, Roman and even Classical the theme of the painting, "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758), maybe one is reminded of nature sunrise and a new day. The "Tiepolo" light shines through. The quality of light and shadow is achieved by masterful draftsmanship and the painted quality gives nature a godly air. All the poetic resonance of the spirit gives depth to the painting. A godly light and spiritual understanding of the sky within as though a reflection on the water is experiential. Time is although a burden and obviously running out for Tiepolo but all his painting share this intellect. A master of light in drawing and painting, the paintings although appearing sketched in have you floating off with the clouds although, heavenly bound or on angel wing. Cupids and a cute, chubby faced baby give the wheel of fortune another name as Venus sits amongst the clouds. Although, you feel the message of the painting would have a different meaning in the seventeen-hundreds than today, the spiritual association with nature remains. Life and death issues are at the fore. God sat me in front of the National Gallery painting in London so many times, I still have not got the message. Venus rides the clouds.

A spiritual quality is achieved

Nicole Page-Smith

A spiritual quality is achieved

Winged time awaits thee. The old man, Time, is our relationship to the self. Although, you feel an educated Tiepolo was painting a popular Rococo theme the paintings, speak of himself. Nature is the predominant, theme. The light of Tiepolo's painting is masterful and you are drawn into the composition by the use of perspective but the light is the light of the spirit of god and a very European light. The light of the spirit. The inner spirit's light almost feels Asian and is very much concerned with Christian religion. One of the first experiences of European light is the sky and reminiscent of paintings more of a later Romantic style clouds and the light are muted. Clouds appear to race on by in the Southern Hemisphere as though you are on another planet and coming back from Europe, the experience is going into the light. The softer light of European paintings from a Southern Hemisphere perspective usually looks like the light in the evening during Summer. Tiepolo's light, however, similar to the Southern Hemisphere light is brighter. The monochromatic palette accentuates the feeling of lightness. A spiritual quality is achieved. 

A European light

Nicole Page-Smith 

A European light

Time sits in the foreground contemplating the young Venus and you wonder if an older Tiepolo is contemplating his wife or his own life. The god Time and other suggestions in the painting speak of an education. Often personal information is not expressed and the paintings are a fashionable understanding of popular styles of their day. However, the allegory of the god Time and his wheel talk of old age and fate, the "earth and the water". Tiepolo at the same time as painting "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758) was director of the Accademia in Venice. The Venus hardly represents a woman known to the artist and you feel with most Italian painters, you could not understand their marital status. Although, perhaps a commission and possibly an unimportant, Tiepolo, all his works carry the same atmospheric spirit. You are reminded of Venice and the water reflected on the clouds. The technique of fresco painting could encourage the depth of the quality and faster drying. Tiepolo was a competent draftsperson and worked with an outline, sketch, you could imagine being filled in with paint. The light then, seems to resonate. Vulcan was the husband of Venus and you are reminded of fiery sunsets taking us to the twilight years although, the painting appears to be painted inside. Hours could have past and you wonder in 18th century Venice if commercial studios were in the basement for although the presumed ceiling painting works as an easel painting and the use of mirrors could easily achieve the desired effect, if the painting was painted in situ. The light of the artist would reflect and evoke the spirit. A European light.

The Saint

Nicole Page-Smith

The Saint

Venus, on the other hand, although the goddess rides the clouds, in the true style of the genre of Rococo painting, fades into the distance from Time, painted in the foreground. Time is somehow ominous. However, in the true understanding of the mythology should provide a happy ending and the light of the clouds, the foreshortening of the painting, a compositional speciality of Tiepolo, reek of the Neo-classical concerns to follow. Truly in a transcendent understanding, a masterly painted description of light, you feel as the painting intends drawn to god, light and the heavens. Traditionally, a ceiling painting, other wall paintings have an equal ability to concern you with a light difficult to explain. Neo-classical sculptors such as Canova provide a similar sense of elevation through Classical themes rather than nature. Although, the Tiepolo painting "An Allegory with Venus and Time" concerns us with the clouds, the theme of the painting is more to do with Roman mythology. Drawn to another Tiepolo painting called "Saint Catherine of Siena" (c. 1746), one is almost completely overcome by a similar neo-platonic light and deep sense of the spiritual mysticism attained by the Saint. 

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Saint Catherine of Siena, c. 1746, 

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The bridges opened once

Nicole Page-Smith 

The bridges opened once

Time as flightless as she is, appears to drift off with the clouds. Tiepolo uses an interesting sense of perspective in his paintings and would be describing as though through an astrolabe, not a timepiece, the phases of the planets. Most Venetian painters would have been working on commissioned based work for noblemen in 18th century Italy. Although, the style of Rococo borders Neoclassicism and Romanticism and a change in focus. We think of the English painter Turner and the clouds. However, High Renaissance and more of an understanding of literature describing Venice describes the reflection of the water in the clouds. Venice is quite well known in painting for a fairly dry academic painter of the seventeen-hundreds, Canaletto. His paintings are like the tourist shop photographs or tourist painting currently still painted of the Grand Canal. The technique used by Tiepolo is of another poet or god. Venetian literature is of another genre and not well known in this century. Venice is very much a tourist town these days but the feeling is always a place for merchants. The fashion industry in Italy would suggest merchants of the cloth but I am sure Venice was a holiday destination. Ships sail out but maybe previously sailed in and down the Grand Canal perhaps the bridges opened once.  

Angels speak to the earth

Nicole Page-Smith

Angels speak to the earth

On my first trip to London, I visited the National Gallery almost every day for a three, month period. Central to town the museum was a good meeting place, restful and had great art to view. The only seats available in the gallery were more often than not in front of a painting called "An Allegory with Venus and Time" (1754-1758) by the Italian, Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo as though some strange message from God. The Rococo artist Tiepolo gives you a strange sense of perspective in his paintings and aerial view. Time is something often gnawing at artists as they live in the present and a consciousness but, the experience of the Tiepolo painting was godly. Venus is our phase of the moon. 

An Allegory with Venus and Time, 1754-1758, 

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, National Gallery, London.