travelled to Milan and Genoa, where his frescoes still gleam in the
palaces of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici. At Wuerzburg in
Bavaria he achieved a magnificent series of decorations for the palace
of the Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy, he painted
altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his friends, and a fresh multitude
of allegorical and mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His
charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top to bottom by himself and
his sons, and has amusing examples of contemporary dress and manners.

When the Academy was instituted in 1755, Tiepolo was appointed its
first director, but the sort of employment it provided was not suited to
his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw up the post and went off to
Spain with his two sons. There he received a splendid welcome and was
loaded with commissions, the only dissentient voice being that of
Raphael Mengs, who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the
antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian's art. Tiepolo died
suddenly in Madrid in 1770, pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,
the frescoes he has left there show that his hand was as firm and his
eye as sure as ever.

His frescoes have, as we have said, that frankly theatrical flavour
which corresponds exactly to the taste of the time. Such works as the
"Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto" in the Church of the
Scalzi in Venice, or the "Triumph of Faith" in that of the Pieta, the
"Triumph of Hercules" in Palazzo Canossa in Verona, or the decorations
in the magnificent villa of the Pisani at Stra, are extravagant and
fantastic, yet have the impressive quality of genius. These last, which
have for subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full of portraits.
The patrician sons and daughters appear, surrounded by Abundance, War,
and Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises Europe. All round are
grouped flags and dragons, "nations grappling in the airy blue," bands
of Red Indians in their war-paint and happy couples making love. The
idea of the history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the House is
paramount, and over all appears Fame, bearing the noble name into
immortality. In Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal committee
gave the painter a free hand, and on the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun
in a chariot, with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the meridian,
flooding the world with light. Venus and Saturn attend him, and his
a