Tiepolo and the Pictorial Intelligence

This study by two brilliant and eminently readable art historians looks at Tiepolo`s works as an example of the specifically pictorial as distinguished from the verbal intelligence. Alpers and Baxandall show that Tiepolo`s greatness lies not in stories told, or in meanings pursued, but in the use of his visual medium-drawing, painting, and natural lighting. They conclude with a study of his best and biggest painting, The Four Continents at Wrzburg, newly photographed for this book. The book ends with an annotated gazetteer for travellers, listing those Tiepolo paintings that can still be seen in the places and conditions for which he painted them.