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| The Capture of Carthage |
Artist:
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid)
Date:
1725–29
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Irregular painted surface, 162 x 148 3/8 in. (411.5 x 376.9 cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
Rogers Fund, 1965
This painting is from a series of ten magnificent canvases painted to decorate the main room of Ca’ Dolfin, Venice. The subject has been variously identified. It probably shows the capture of Carthage by Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (known as Scipio Africanus the Younger) in 146 B.C., a momentous event that categorically ended the power of Carthage. The carnage was unspeakable and the city burned for seventeen days. The depiction of this event probably carried an allusion to the recent campaigns of the Venetians against the Turks in the Mediterranean, and in particular to the participation of Daniele Dolfin.
Provenance
Ca' Dolfin, Venice (until 1872); Daniele III (Giovanni) and Daniele IV (Gerolamo) Dolfin, Ca' Dolfin (until both d. 1729); Dolfin family, Ca' Dolfin (1729–98); Cecilia Dolfin Lippomano, Ca' Dolfin (from 1798); by descent to Gasparo Lippomano, Ca' Dolfin (until d. 1854); his nephew, conte Giovanni Querini Stampalia, Ca' Dolfin (1854–d. 1868); [Michelangelo Guggenheim, Venice, by 1870–72; sold for 50,000 lire to von Aichholz]; Baron Eugen Miller von Aichholz, Palast Aichholz, Vienna (1872–d. 1919; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 15, 1876, no. 2, as "Assaut et prise de Palmyre," 480 x 370 cm, bought in); Camillo Castiglioni, Palast Aichholz, Vienna (1919–35; pledged as collateral security for a loan in 1932; transferred to Mendl in 1935); Dr. Stefan Mendl, Zürich, later New York and Saranac Lake, N.Y. (1935–d. 1955; his estate, 1955–65; sold to MMA)
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
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