Procession of Monks and Flagellants 1696 - 1770

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo made this pen and brown wash drawing entitled 'Procession of Monks and Flagellants.' The work depicts a religious order, including children, in a somber parade carrying religious objects, presumably on their way to a church. It's useful to remember that Venice, where Tiepolo worked, was a company state with close ties to the Catholic church. Religious life and institutions shaped everyday experience. In his art, Tiepolo often worked for these religious institutions, or wealthy families with ties to them. This allowed him to create large-scale interior decorations in the Baroque style, whose theatricality you can also see in this drawing. To further understand Tiepolo, we need to consider the social conditions that shaped his work. What was his relationship to the church? How did this affect the imagery of his art? This is where historical methods can come into play, looking at archival sources and institutional histories to add nuance to what we see.