| At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a new style of painting emerges in Venice that is a response to the traditions of seventeenth-century Venetian painting. The prime originator of this new Venetian rococo style of painting is Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741) who is instrumental in its dissemination throughout Europe.;This new style emphasizes a pastel palette, staccato manner of painting, minimal architectural backgrounds and a theatrical approach to composition. Pellegrini's contributions to eighteenth-century Venetian painting are important for two reasons. Firstly, he is the most fervent proponent of a lightened palette and the treatment of light before Tiepolo. Secondly, he had very distinguished talents as a creator of large scenes, huge ceilings, and intricate groups of figures with a flowing technique and the use of color as the chief decorative and descriptive means emphasizing expressive gesture in place of expressive movement. Pellegrini creates a style highlighted by the greatest possible variety of textures, pastel colors and light effects.;His work constitutes a prime case study in the internationalism for which the eighteenth century is characterized. His influence in bringing the eighteenth-century Venetian painting style to Germany and to Central Europe in general, are extensive and his is certainly considered an important link between the Italian late Baroque and the full splendor of eighteenth-century European painting.;Although Pellegrini worked in France, the Low Countries, Belgium and England, the majority of his important paintings in Germany and Austria during three visits in 1713-1716, 1724-1730, and 1736-1737. By examining these works in comparison with "interim" periods, a preliminary stylistic chronology is established which brings our image of the painter into focus, as well as enriches our image of this new style. Moreover, because his activity coincides with a minor "rebirth" in Venetian painting, an analysis of his work in the context of important stylistic changes at the outset of the eighteenth century not only defines his place in it, but his own character as well. Thus, the phenomenon of Venetian painters as carriers of a new style, begun by Pellegrini, culminates in Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's frescoes in the Wurzburg Residenz in 1751-1753. |
