Escipión el Africano liberando a Masiva

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo painted this in Venice around 1720, when he was in his early twenties and still building a name. The subject is a lesson in mercy from ancient Rome. After a victory in Spain the general Scipio captures a young enemy prince, Massiva, then frees him and sends him home laden with gifts, winning a family's loyalty rather than crushing it. The young Tiepolo stages it like theatre, a shallow row of figures with one hot note of red at the centre pulling the eye straight to Scipio. The bright, pearly colour that would later fill his ceilings across Europe is already here, still a little cooler and more careful than it would become.