856 massimo favilla, ruggero rugolo, and dulcia meijers
reality that his scenes caused a stir.” alessandro also tellingly mentioned
that his father was capable of depicting masked figures so strikingly that
they were recognizable, notwithstanding the disguise.114 the masked gal-
lantries depicted, for instance, in Longhi’s Ridotto Pubblico, the official
gambling house and precursor of the modern casino, in his bottega del
caffè, or in his street scenes depicting specific events must have been
immensely amusing to Venetians because of the “inside jokes” that could
be understood only by the locals. Longhi’s social observations present
themselves as a gentle form of digestible social criticism meant to enter-
tain; of humorous self-criticism, even if seen from the perspective of those
who paid for them.
Giandomenico tiepolo portrayed scenes from contemporary life in a
completely different way.115 tiepolo, who had collaborated with his father
for years, gradually but steadily, and probably supported in this by his
father, acquired his own personal style. He could differ from his father in
the choice of subject matter, as in the guest lodge of the Villa Valmarana
near Vicenza, where he depicted scenes from rural life while his father
was working on stories from Homer, Virgil, ariosto, and tasso in the main
building. Here again, as is the case with Longhi, only by the standards of
his time can these pleasant peasant scenes be dubbed “realistic.” in his
later years he concentrated on the escapades of Pulcinella, a character
from the Commedia dell’arte, who forms a plebeian counter-figure to the
heroes of his father, ridiculing all manner of conventions.116
another most remarkable work at the end of his career forms Il Mondo
Novo, signed and dated 1791 and conceived to decorate the walls of the art-
ist’s own Villa Zianigo in Mirano (Fig. 22.14). this frieze-form fresco shows
a crowd of mixed people, Pulcinella included, that has gathered around an
edifice, the magic lantern, to catch a glimpse of the cosmorama displayed
inside of it.117 Goldoni had already treated this theme before him, as had
Pietro Longhi. But in tiepolo’s version, interestingly, practically the whole
114 alessandro Longhi, Compendio delle vite de’ pittori veneziani istorici più rinomati del
presente secolo con suoi ritratti tratti dal naturale (Venice, 1762), pp. 31–32.
115 See in general, adriano Mariuz, Giandomenico Tiepolo (Venice, 1971); and adriano
Mariuz, Tiepolo (Verona, 2008).
116 Whistler in exh. cat. (London/Washington, 1994–95), The Glory of Venice: Art in the
Eighteenth Century, ed. Jane Martineau (new Haven, 1994), 329–59; Mariuz and Pedrocco,
Giandomenico Tiepolo; exh. cat. (Venice, 2004), Tiepolo. Ironia e comico, ed. adriano Mariuz
and Giuseppe Pavanello (Venice, 2004).
117 the first who used the term il Mondo Nuovo for cosmoramas was Goldoni in his play I
Rusteghi. See also Darius a. Spieth, “Giandomenico tiepolo’s il Mondo nuovo: Peep Shows
and the Politics of nostalgia,” The Art Bulletin (September, 2010), 188–210. in 1906, when