Goya, Fragonard, Tiepolo: The Freedom of Imagination – Apollo Magazine

In Spain, France and Italy, the political and social transformations of the 18th century led these three very different artists this show of 100 works contends to develop both a freer handling of paint, and a more fantastical choice of subject matter. Find out more from the Hamburger Kunsthalles website.

Preview the exhibition below |View Apollos Art Diary here

Christ in Gethsemane (after 1753), Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Photo: Elke Ward; Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk

In this painting, Christ lies in the garden of Gethsemane, where he was betrayed and arrested. Tiepolos clever play of light and dark here communicates to the viewer Christs state of mental anguish an example of the Italian painters skill at engaging his viewers imaginatively in his paintings.

The Philosopher (c. 1764), Jean-Honor Fragonard. Photo: Elke Ward; Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk

In this early painting by Fragonard, the intensity with the philosopher directs his eyes towards his book is echoed in the impassioned flair of the brushwork with which his scholars robes and wisps of white hair are depicted. Characteristically exuberant, the work pre-empts Fragonards later, famous series of Fantasy Portraits, in arguing above all for the intensity of experience that is to be found in the imagination a belief the painter shared with Denis Diderot, the pre-eminent French philosopher of the Enlightenment.

Don Toms Prez Estala (c. 1795), Francisco Jos de Goya y Lucientes. Photo: Elke Ward; Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk

Stripped of all incidental detail, this depiction of the engineer Toms Prez is typical of Goyas portraiture. All of the force of the painting comes from the eyes, the heavily set features, and the slight twist of the torso. The Spanish artist is seen here as completing the process, begun by Tiepolo, of changing the way we read a painting forcing the viewer no longer to rely on visual clues, but to meet the painting on its own terms and thereby anticipating modernity.

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Goya, Fragonard, Tiepolo: The Freedom of Imagination - Apollo Magazine