Piazzetta, Giovanni Batista [key], 1682–1754, Italian painter. An exponent of the Venetian school, Piazzetta combined soft colors with a dramatic, chiaroscuro technique reminiscent of Caravaggio. His informal brushwork and shimmering figures foreshadowed rococo style and influenced his pupil Tiepolo. Among his major works are Glory of St. Dominic (1727; in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice), The Fortune Teller (c.1745; Accademia, Venice), and a series of charcoal studies of the nude. Engravings of his paintings by Pietro Monaco brought them international attention.
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