Americans might be a little crazy when it comes to holidays, but we do know that Easter is more than eggs, a big white bunny, and a silly little race that happens at the White House every year. Easter Mass is, in fact, the most-well attended Sunday service for Christian churches. It’s even more well-attended than Christmas. Go figure.

Even though we usually bust a nut over more contemporary art, we’ve gotta admit a certain fetish for 18th Century Venetian… (*sigh*)

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo | The Holy Family Crossing a Lake in a Boat | $4,500

So if you’re not sweating at confession or gorging yourself on Easter dinner yet, the Molecule suggests you feast on this first: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. Giovanni was known to put together tasty little black and white numbers like the one above for the rich and famous of the day. But the detail and devotion of this painter, one who followed in the footsteps of his talented and famous father, is best seen in his amazing collection of pieces that depict the life of Christ. We could say he was a bit more in tune with the meaning of Easter. Or we could say he just liked a good story. Either way, his paintings will blow you away.

Born in Venice on August 30, 1727, it’s rumored that the painter was already working for his father Giovanni Battista moments after he sprang from his mother’s womb. By the age of 20 Domenico was commissioned for his own work, but it wasn’t until after his father’s death that he began to develop his (more realistic) signature style.

It’s been over a year since the Frick Collection in New York first showcased 63 never-before-seen cells of Domenico’s 313 known New Testament Cycle drawings. From October 2006 through January 2007 the gallery was packed with a mere fragmentation of his narrative series of Christ’s life from early Christianity through the foundation of the church.

“While a number of works included in the exhibition display Domenico’s gifts as a storyteller and chronicler of his time, others reveal the depth of his piety and empathy. He approached his project as an interpreter and biblical scholar, drawing his own conclusions about the events from all the available, often conflicting, literary sources known to him, in order to infuse his cycle with a more complete and complex rendering of the Christian epic.” -The Frick Collection 2006 Information Brochure

If you had a chance to see the exhibit, you’d remember the powerful display of cells, mimicking the narrative style in which they were created. The detailed strokes and visionary execution of the master draftsman made the exhibit a triumph for religious and secular crowds alike.

Perhaps the most intense work in the cycle is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: The Second Prayer (above). According to biblical teaching, hours later Christ would be hung on a cross and murdered for the sins of humanity by his father, God. And days later he would miraculously resurrect. Soon after Domenico died in 1804, the works were sold and scattered to the four winds. Kudos to Frick for bringing these 63 works together.

“[Tiepolo's] greatest achievement expressed a yearning or homesickness, fueled by faith and religious devotion–the product of the most intense passion, or religious possession.” -Leaves of the Tree

The Seattle Art Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, London’s National Gallery, and the Wadsworth Atheneum are a few public collections that hold paintings by Domenico Tiepolo.

LEARN MORE

Indiana University’s Ryan Piurek writes “Cracking the Domenico Code“
The Frick’s Domenico gallery images