- 89
* Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Venice 1696 - 1770 Madrid
bidding is closed
Description
- Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
- a bishop and two priests, with an acolyte holding open a book before them
- pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, all four corners made up
Provenance
Prince Alexis Orloff, his sale, Paris, Galerie Petit, 30 April 1920, lot 122, reproduced;
Z. Birtschansky, Paris;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 July 1981, lot 70;
purchased at that sale by John and Alice Steiner
Exhibited
Venice, Mostra del Tiepolo, 1951, drawing cat. no. 83;
Santa Barbara, California, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of John and Alice Steiner, 1986, cat. no. 41, reproduced.
Santa Barbara, California, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of John and Alice Steiner, 1986, cat. no. 41, reproduced.
Literature
G. Knox, 'The Orloff Album of Tiepolo Drawings', Burlington Magazine, vol. CIII, June 1961, p. 275, no. 74;
D. von Hadeln, The Drawings of G. B. Tiepolo, New York 1970 (reprint of 1928 edition), vol. I, p. 27, reproduced plate 101
D. von Hadeln, The Drawings of G. B. Tiepolo, New York 1970 (reprint of 1928 edition), vol. I, p. 27, reproduced plate 101
Catalogue Note
George Knox, in his revealing analysis of the Orloff album (loc. cit. below), dates this drawing to the 1750s. Two other drawings with similar subjects were in the Orloff sale, lots 121 and 123. Although these figures do not appear exactly in any painting, Giambattista used such stately bishops, reading from books held by acolytes, in many works, such as St. Augustine and Other Saints, in the National Gallery, London (see A. Morassi, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G. B. Tiepolo, London 1962, p. 16, fig. 110).