FIGURE 6.2 Giambattista Tiepolo. Oil sketch for The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha, ca. 1734. Oil on canvas. Present location unknown. Dipartimento di Storia delle Arti e Conservazione dei Beni Artistici "G. Mazzariol," Universita Ca' Foscari di Venezia, Fototeca A. Morassi, unita 177. FIGURE 6.1 Giambattista Tiepolo. The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha, 1734-37- Oil on canvas. Padua, Basilica of S ant Antonio. inconsistent anatomy of the figures reveal that the composition, in contrast to the pale, drained Tiepolo concentrated on building this composi- flesh of the martyr. The red splashes of Agatha's tion chiefly through color relationships. Although blood mix with passages of rust, pink, and tomato this painting is the most seriously damaged (as well as the reddish ground), while layered of all the Courtauld oil sketches—the left side zigzags of paint, drawn in wet with a brush, con- of the canvas has been abraded, and there vey the agitation of the drapery. are many losses to the upper layers of the bald Tiepolo returned to the subject in the mid- attendant's red-brown robes and the mourners 17505 for an altarpiece, now in the Gemalde- at bottom—it still presents an immensely galerie, Berlin, commissioned by the Benedictine sophisticated palette. A complex balance of reds, nuns at Sant'Agata, Lendinara, near Rovigo oranges, and yellows dominates the center of (fig. 6.3). The prominent play of halberds and 6 4