The Adoration of the Holy Trinity by Pope St. Clement,

The archbishop and elector Clemens August of Cologne, the brother of the Bavarian elector, commissioned this work from Tiepolo in Venice. This altarpiece, intended for the Church of the Canonesses Regular in the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace, depicts Pope Clement, the benefactor’s namesake, who held office in the first century. With an esprit of his very own and the intelligence of the artist’s narrative prowess, Tiepolo paints a dramatic version of the Holy Trinity, accompanied by angels, experienced in a vision by the pope at the altar of a Baroque basilica.