"The Assumption of the Virgin"

This is the painting with which Tiepolo made his debut in fresco. Its relatively dark tonality stands in marked contrast to his high-key late manner and shows the extent to which he was still under the sway of the high-contrast tenebrists, particularly that of Giambattista Piazzetta. It is not a masterpiece by any means, but it is an important painting, for it shows that Tiepolo did not, as it were, spring fully armed from the thigh of Zeus like Athena. Rather, The Assumption of the Virgin shows that his style evolved (albeit very quickly). A year or so later we find him painting two spectacular frescoes - The Triumph of Aurora and the Myth of Phaethon - for the Venetian publisher Giambattista Baglioni. Adriano Mariuz takes the view that it is only later that "Tiepolo fully realized his own talent and vocation as a peerless frescoist." Having said that, the way in which he arranges the figure in a vortex of curves, the pale azure of the heavens, the slightly Mannerist pose the Virgin strikes, and the broad brush work, all give us glimpses of what would become Tiepolo's trademark.