Bacchus and Ariadne c. 1745

Curator: Oh, I see so much swirling emotion in this sepia wash, almost as if love itself is just a blurry, drunken encounter. Editor: Precisely! Here we have Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's "Bacchus and Ariadne" from around 1745, rendered in ink. Look closely, and you’ll begin to appreciate how ink—often seen as merely preparatory—can have such expressive qualities in the hands of a master. Curator: Expressive is certainly one word! Ariadne’s looking rather…underwhelmed considering she's being swept away by a god, isn’t she? I've always thought it feels like Tiepolo captures the before-and-after of grand passion, where the real magic is somewhere off-page. Editor: Perhaps. Though what strikes me immediately is how this seemingly classical theme actually plays with very material concerns. Think about the Venetian workshops churning out paintings at this time, this loose handling almost rebels against expectations of slick surfaces, of laboriously finished canvases made for consumption. Instead, here are raw strokes made visible. Curator: Ah, you think of it as a conscious un-slicking. Interesting. To me, the ink-wash style enhances its dreamlike, fleeting feeling. Imagine seeing this scene in a hazy recollection – it’s that tantalizing almost-but-not-quite. Tiepolo teases us with unfinished stories! It makes the creative process laid bare before our eyes! Editor: Indeed. Consider how the Baroque as a period emphasized dramatic flair, and visual abundance which relied, to a degree, on readily available pigments, efficient studio practices, to cater for both the church and private patrons who drove production. We might be seeing just that - the tension in Venice between artistry and manufacture in ink! Curator: True! Maybe that is the magic! Between the lines and the blotches is a whisper of how art both captures and transcends life's chaos. Thanks to Tiepolo, maybe the blur *is* the point. Editor: I concur! Tiepolo challenges us to re-evaluate the medium, while demonstrating the period’s reliance on materials. It makes this drawing much more significant for being deceptively ephemeral.