Giovanni Battista Piazzetta Venice 1682-1754

In private communications from June 2003, Prof. George Knox has identified this painting to be a work by Piazzetta and dateable to circa 1715.  He compares it to other genre pictures by Piazzetta of this date such as:  A Young Peasant Boy (Bloomington, Indiana University Art Museum; A Sleeping Girl with a Basket of Turnips and A Peasant Boy (both in the Salzburg, Resindezgalerie); and A Young Hunter (Paris, Cailleux collection, see Mariuz, L'opera completa di Piazzetta, no. 12).  A drawing of a similar head of a youth was sold at Christie's, New York, January 23, 2002, lot 7.