ings of peasant festivals, such as Kermess Celebrating the
Consecration of a Church (1594; Paris, Institut Neerlan-
dais), as well as mountain scenes, such as Forest Landscape
with a Natural Bridge (circa 1604; Copenhagen, Statens
Museum for Kunst). Many of his drawings done at the
Rudolfine court were engraved by Aegidius Sadeler.
From 1620 to 1624 Stevens was employed by Prince Karl
of Liechtenstein, Stadtholder of Bohemia.STRADANUS (Jan van der Straet)
Bruges 1523 -Florence 1605
A student of Pieter Aertsen, Stradanus became a mem-
ber of the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke in 1545. Shortly
thereafter, he traveled to Venice, via Lyons, and finally
took up residence in Florence, where he settled perma-
nently, save for visits to Rome circa 1555, to the Neth-
erlands in 1576-1578, and Naples circa 1578-1580. In
Florence Stradanus collaborated with Vasari on the dec-
oration of the palaces of the Medici, and around 1561 he
began to produce designs for a series of hunting tapes-
tries for Grand Duke Cosimo I, to be hung in the Villa
Poggio a Caiano near Florence. The tapestries were
woven at the grandducal arazzeria circa 1567-1577. Stra-
danus also supplied Antwerp publishers with designs for
prints, the best known of which are several series de-
picting the art of hunting. Initially, influenced by Ant-
werp Mannerism, Stradanus in his later works combined
a figure style shaped by Vasari and Tintoretto with a
characteristically Northern interest in naturalistic and to-
pographical details.
PIETRO TESTA
Lucca i6i2-Rome 1650
Pietro Testa worked as a painter and printmaker. By 1630
he was living in Rome, where he studied with Domen-
ichino, followed by a brief period with Pietro da Cor-
tona. Testa's surviving paintings are extremely rare and
include the Massacre of the Innocents (Rome, Galleria
Spada) and the Miracle of Saint Theodore (Lucca, San Pa-
olino). He was, above all, a prolific and appealing
draughtsman and found the graphic media most suitable
to his expressive purposes. Early etchings such as the
Saint Jerome (1630-1631; B. 15^19] v.45,2o) and the Venus
and Adonis (B. 25 [222] v. 45,20) reveal a neo-Venetian stage
in Testa's art in the sensitive rendering of details, tonali-
ties, and picturesque landscapes. During the 16305 and
'405 he frequented the circle of the learned antiquarian
Cassiano del Pozzo and became a friend of Nicolas Pous-
sin. As a result his art assumed a more austere and classical
tenor, as can be seeninPtoo'5 Symposium (1648; B. 18(220]
v.45,2o) and The Death ofCato (1648; B.2o[22o] v.45.2o).
Testa's last years were occupied in writing a treatise on
painting.GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO
Venice 1696-Madrid 1770
Tiepolo studied with Gregorio Lazzarini and was later
influenced by Sebastiano Ricci, Piazzetta, and Veronese.
He created elaborate fresco decorations and paintings for
palaces and churches in northern Italy, Germany, and
Spain with an inventive freedom of form and color ex-
pressive of the Rococo spirit. Tiepolo excelled in creat-
ing the illusion of infinite space articulated with lumi-
nous colors and atmospheric effects and animated with
flickering brushwork, as can be seen in the Glory of Saint
Theresa (1720-1725; Venice, Santa Maria degli Scalzi),
the allegorical fresco decorations (1750-1753) for the
prince-bishop's residence at Wiirzburg, and the Anthony
and Cleopatra cycle (circa 1747-1750) in the Palazzo La-
bia, Venice. Tiepolo was also a graphic artist, and in his
etchings for the Scherzi di Fantasia (1735-1740), pub-
lished in 1743, he indulged his taste for the grotesque and
fantastic in the tradition of Castiglione. He was sum-
moned to Spain in 1762 at the invitation of Charles III to
decorate several rooms of the royal palace and remained
there until his death in 1770.GIOVANNI DOMENICO TIEPOLO
Venice 1727-1804
Giovanni Domenico was the son and pupil of Giovanni
Battista Tiepolo. He collaborated with his father on nu-
merous projects and accompanied him to Wiirzburg in
1750-1753 and to Madrid in 1762-1770. Domenico re-
ceived important commissions of his own beginning
with the Stations of the Cross (1747) for the Oratorio del
Crocifisso in the church of San Polo, Venice. Between
1754 and 1755 he painted the cupola of SS. Giovita e Faus-
tina, Brescia, and in 1757 decorated the guest house of the
Villa Valmarana, Vicenza, with delightful scenes of
country life, rich in observed detail. During the 17705
Domenico produced a number of religious paintings
characterized by animated, broken brushstrokes and an
increased attention to realism and lighting effects, as can
be seen in the Institution of the Eucharist (1778; Venice, Ac-
cademia). His personal style and expression favored the
depiction of the daily preoccupations of the bourgeoisie
and of clowns and mountebanks, often presented with
sardonic wit and a tendency to caricature. These subjects
are best represented in his vast production of prints and
drawings, including the Punchinello series, and the fres-
coes in the family villa at Zianigo (1791-1793; Venice,
Ca'Rezzonico).354 ARTISTS BIOGRAPHIES