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Painting & Sculpture: The eighteenth century
In the 18th century the Italians were announced for their innovations in scenery and design. The proscenium arch, perspective settings, rapid shifting of scenery and special effects are all part of Italy's repertoire in the area of design. During the 1700s, the Bibiena family of Italy was lauded for creating angled perspective in set design as well as for their alteration of the scale of settings. Many Italian artists during the 18th century continued to use baroque styles, though rococo became increasingly important, particularly in decorative works. Alessandro Magnasco worked in Genoa and Florence in the first half of the 18th century, contributing to the type of Italian landscape painting derived from Rosa. The early years of the century also saw the growth in demand for painted and engraved views of Rome, of which Panini's paintings and Piranesi's engravings are the most important examples, showing a turning away from baroque styles. In Venice, Canaletto and Guardi developed in landscape painting a type which was independent of the academic Roman style. The grand Venetian tradition of decorative painting was revitalized by Tiepolo and Piazzetta. Also in Venice, Pietro Longhi excelled in genre paintings.
An renewed version of the style of Veronese was first fostered by Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734), whose work is superficially similar to Veronese's, but has an airier, lighter feel. A more individual approach is apparent in the work of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1683-1754), an outstanding draughtsman whose joyful and harmonious paintings give the impression of a free and easy approach, yet which were actually the result of meticulous planning. Venice also boasted a notable female portraitist in Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), who was the first artist to use pastel as an independent medium.
By far the most accomplished exponent of Venetian Rococo, and one of the greatest decorative artists of all time, was Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo was a Italian painter and printmaker, considered among the last "Grand Manner" fresco painters. His work is best seen in an architectural setting, where his illusionistic approach compares favourably with those of the earlier Roman artists in its colour, handling, spatial awareness, sense of fantasy and depth of feeling.
Between non-Venetian painters, the Genoese Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749) is particularly distinctive, often combining into one picture his two favourite compositions of mannered landscapes ravaged by the elements and ecstatic monks at prayer. In Rome, the tourist demand for views was met by Giovanni Paolo Panini (c1692-1765), who painted both the ruins of the classical period and the modern buildings of the day. These are surpassed, however, by the grandiose large-scale etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78), which fully exploit the dramatic contrasts of light and shade possible in the black-and-white medium.
The latter can be observed as an early manifestation of Neoclassicism, a movement which started in the middle of the century, inspired partly by a reaction against Baroque excesses, and partly by the excitement caused by the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, though many of its leading exponents were foreigners resident in Rome. Neoclassicism aimed at the complete revival of the arts of the ancients, a trend that was particularly marked in sculpture, which had a far larger legacy to borrow on than painting.
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