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
