Allegory of the Planets and Continents

Allegory of the Planets and Continents is a 1752 painting (or detailed sketch) by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.^[1] Done in oil on canvas, the allegorical work uses human figures to represent members of the Greco-Roman pantheon, the planets, and four continents. The painting is an elaborate oil sketch made by Tiepolo in preparation for rendering a similar, larger version of the scene as a massive fresco.^[1] Between December 1750 and November 1753, Tiepolo was commissioned to decorate the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg Karl Philipp von Greifenclau zu Vollraths newly constructed palace on the ceiling of a staircase. He created a massive fresco of over 600 m², considered the largest fresco in the world and is often thought to be his greatest achievement. The intricate painting depicts figures circling around Tiepolo's rendering of Apollo, the sun god; this represents planets orbiting the Sun. The cornice of the painting symbolize the continents Europe, America, Africa, and Asia.^[1]

Allegory of the Planets and Continents
Artist	Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Year	1752
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	185.4 cm × 139.4 cm (73.0 in × 54.9 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

It was identified in the ceiling of a corridor at the Hendon Hall Hotel, London, in 1954. How it came to be at Hendon Hall is not entirely clear: the house was once owned by the actor David Garrick although he never lived there.^[2] The painting differs from the Würzburg fresco in several ways; the fresco includes portraits of Greifenclau, Tiepolo, his two sons, and Balthasar Neumann, and the positions of the Americas and Europe are reversed.^[3] There some divergence among critics as to whether the painting was made before or after the fresco,^[1][4] or whether it is by Tiepolo or his son Domenico Tiepolo.^[3]

References

1. "Allegory of the Planets and Continents". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
2. Edward T. Evans. The History and Topography of the Parish of Hendon, Middlesex. London, 1890, pp. 239–40
3. Fahy, Everett; Watson, F. J. B. (1973). "25. Allegory of the Planets and Continents". The Wrightsman Collection. Vol. 5, Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 232–247.
4. Watson, F. J. B. "Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: A Masterpiece and a Book." Connoisseur vol. 136 (November 1955), p. 215