Artwork
Africa
Africa is an unspecified painting by the Rococo painting artist Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. It dates from 1775 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo's 1775 painting titled Africa depicts a woman, consistent with the allegorical tradition of representing continents as female figures.
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo's 1775 painting titled Africa depicts a woman, consistent with the allegorical tradition of representing continents as female figures. The work serves as a personification of the African continent, utilizing the standard iconographic convention of portraying the subject as a single female figure. Created during the mid-1770s, the painting functions as an allegorical representation rather than a literal landscape or historical scene.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1775, this work by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo is classified as a painting. The composition features a woman as its primary subject. Physically, the artwork measures 81.9 cm in height and 108.6 cm in width. It is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
History & Provenance
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo created the painting Africa in 1775. The work depicts a woman and is classified as a painting. It currently resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is held as part of their permanent holdings.
The dimensions of the canvas are recorded as 81.9 cm in height and 108.6 cm in width. No specific details regarding the original commission or the intermediate ownership chain prior to its arrival at the museum are provided in the available records.
Africa, a 1775 painting by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work, measuring 81.9 cm in height by 108.6 cm in width, is classified as a painting and depicts a woman.
No specific accession number or exhibition history is documented in the available sources.
Overview
Created in 1775 by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, a late‑Rococo painter and the son of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Africa is an oil painting now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work presents a solitary female figure seated on a stony shoreline, surrounded by a modest landscape that includes a hovering winged being and a resting sheep.
Context
Africa belongs to the later phase of Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo’s career, a period when he increasingly turned to allegorical subjects rather than the grand frescoes of his father. The work illustrates the transition from the exuberant Rococo toward a more subdued, neoclassical sensibility that began to dominate European art in the years preceding the French Revolution.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (August 30, 1727 – March 3, 1804) was an Italian painter and printmaker in etching. He was the son of artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo.
