Jacopo Guarana

1720 – 1808

Italian painter. He first studied the work of Sebastiano Ricci and then that of Giambattista Tiepolo. Throughout his career Jacopo faithfully followed the great Venetian decorative artists of the 18th century. He was resident in Venice for the whole of his life and is documented as travelling to Ravenna, where in 1751 he decorated the dome of San Vitale, taking over from Ubaldo Gandolfi. He also worked at Valnogaredo (1763) and Strà (1770). His early works in Venice are painted in the style of Tiepolo but with a lighter palette. Examples include the Martyrdom of St Thomas (1755) on the ceiling of S Tomà; and the ceiling (1753-58) for the room now known as the Sala degli Arazzi in the Ca' Rezzonico. He became a member of the Accademia in Venice in 1756. In 1758 he was decorating the ceiling of San Teonisto at Treviso, where, with the assistance of the quadratura painter Domenico Fossati (1743-84), he executed the Assumption of the Virgin (destroyed). His son, Vincenzo Guarana (1753-1815) was also a painter specialized in religious and historical subjects.

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