Ungedeutete Szene_ Männer und Frauen in Wolken 

Editor: So, we’re looking at "Ungedeutete Szene_Männer und Frauen in Wolken," or "Unexplained Scene: Men and Women in Clouds," a drawing by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. The figures are adrift on what appear to be clouds and sketched with delicate strokes of ink, chalk, and pencil. I find its ethereal quality intriguing. What are your initial thoughts? Curator: Intriguing is a gentle way to put it! I’m captivated by the unfinished nature – it’s like catching Tiepolo mid-thought. Consider that the Baroque aesthetic loved grand, sweeping narratives, the kind painted across ceilings, transporting you to another realm. What does that legacy leave behind here, do you think? Editor: A feeling of incompleteness and ephemerality? Perhaps hinting at the fleeting nature of grand narratives? Curator: Precisely. The looseness lets us breathe and bring our own narratives, which are arguably more poignant. Look how figures fade in and out of definition – a god, a warrior – and that Cupid floating in the left quadrant like a daydream. Tiepolo’s work asks us: Are these sketches, or fleeting glimpses of a celestial soap opera? Editor: I guess it challenges the idea that Baroque art is purely about spectacle. Curator: Exactly! Tiepolo's genius lies not only in spectacle, but inviting the viewer into the spectacle and participate by questioning it, even subverting it, by acknowledging the "unexplained scene." He gives us the brushstrokes, the atmosphere and invites the audience to bring their own story to his sketches. Editor: It certainly changes how I will view Baroque and Rococo from now on, a more internalized vision that values individual perspectives.