07/20/2026
A new direction for my little corner of the Antique Business, to be sure. My latest acquisition is a rather large (60 x 49 inches) painting of St. John of Nepomuk. Despite spending a bit time online, I've had limited success tracking down its history or any information on the artist who created it. My current hypothesis places it as a copy of a famous painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (seen here in the arched frame), which he painted in the mid to late 18th century. That copy resides in the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Venice.
It was, and apparently still is, a habit of wealthy patrons to commission aspiring artists to create copies of original masterpieces, and Tiepolo was considered by many to be one of the greatest Italian painters of his time. The composition of "my" painting definitely resembles Tiepolo's, though it obviously misses some of his background details, perhaps at the behest of the one who may have commissioned it.
I hope to have this painting on its way to Burning Bridge Antique Mall in Columbia, Pa later this week. If you're interested in learning more about St. John of Nepomuk and have the inclination to read further, I'm including it below this paragraph.
Historians place his birth in 1345 at the town of Nepomuk, Bohemia (now Czechoslovakia). In 1393 John was a Vicar to the Archbishop of Prague when King Wenceslas IV arrested and tortured him for his refusal to support the "not so good King's" plan to seize property and assets of a nearby monastery. Tiepolo's painting shows John receiving a visit from the Virgin Mary, who provides him the strength to endure his upcoming ordeal. After his subsequent torture, he was thrown in the Vltava river to drown.
By the middle of the 15th century, his story was reinvented as an allegory of the importance of the seal of confession. In this version of events, the Queen and wife of Wenceslas IV mentioned her infidelity during confession. Enraged, the "not so good King" attempted to torture the name of her lover out of him, to no avail.
St. John of Nepomuk continues to be a significant part of Czechoslovakian history and multiple statues of him reside there.
