Die griechische Flotte in Aulis

In 1757 Giambattista Tiepolo, the most sought-after painter in Venice, took a commission just outside Vicenza: the walls of a modest country house, the Villa Valmarana, for a count who loved the theater. In one room he painted the story of Iphigenia, and he staged it like a play. On the main wall a girl is about to be sacrificed to win the gods' favor. On this wall waits the reason for it all, the Greek fleet gathered at Aulis, its ships and soldiers stranded on a windless shore, unable to sail for Troy until the sacrifice is made. Tiepolo sets the warriors between painted columns, as if they were actors caught between the acts. Look up in the room and the sky opens overhead, where the wind the army is praying for finally begins to stir.