Eighteenth Century Venice was gay, decadent and lip-service pious. Its sophisticated proverb: "In the morning a bit of Mass, in the afternoon a little game, in the evening a woman." Its most famous son: the amorous mountebank Casanova. Its most accomplished artist: industrious Giambattista Tiepolo, who painted exactly to his townsmen's taste.
In proud retrospect this week, Venice is giving Tiepolo his due in the biggest roundup of Tiepolos in history: 112 canvases, 150 drawings and engravings, gathered from museums, churches and private collections from Helsinki to Kansas City. In addition, special "Tiepolo Tours"...