Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Library of the Somasco Convent at Santa Maria della Salute, Venice;
Count Leopoldo Cicognara;
Antonio Canova;
by inheritance to his half-brother, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Sartori-Canova;
Francesco Pesaro;
by whom sold to Col. Edward Cheney, Badger Hall, Shropshire;
by inheritance to his brother-in-law, Col. Alfred Capel-Cure, Blake Hall,  
sale, London, Sotheby's, 29 April 1885 (part of lot 1024), to E. Parsons and Sons, London;
with Richard Owen, Paris;
with The Savile Gallery, London, 1928;
with F.A. Drey, London;
Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell,
their sale, London, Sotheby's, 30 June 1986, lot 79;
with Kate de Rothschild, London; acquired 1988

London, The Savile Gallery, Tiepolo Exhibition, 1928, no. 3, reproduced;
London, Royal Academy, European Masters of the Eighteenth Century, 1954-55, no. 590;
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, 1965, no. 64;
London, Kate de Rothschild, Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, 1987, no. 1, reproduced;
London - New York, Kate de Rothschild and Didier Aaron, Master Drawings 1550 - 1850, 1988, no. 28, reproduced;
University of Florida, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, et al., Italian Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, 1991-93, no. 29

Lightly foxed throughout. Otherwise very good and fresh.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This drawing is one of a series of at least seventy-six variations on the theme of the Holy Family originating from the Savile Album, so-called because it first came to light in an exhibition at the Savile Gallery in May 1928.  Tiepolo had given the album to the Somasco Convent in Venice in 1762, before he left for Spain.  It was only after the Cheney sale in 1885 that it was dismembered, some forty drawings (including this one) being bought by the Savile Gallery, and around fifteen by Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi.¹  The same album also contained a remarkable series of head studies (see lot 82).

The drawings in the Holy Family series, dated by George Knox to the period 1754-62, appear to have been made as independent works of art.  None of the indivdual variations are connected with any painted projects.  Knox comments that these drawings 'float on the page like exquisite arabesques, and together represent the most magnificently sustained testimony to Giambattista's graphic inventiveness.'²  Some of the drawings depict just the three key figures of the Christ Child and his parents, while in others Giambattista incorporated additional elements, such as the young St. John the Baptist, various adoring angels, and devices like sketchy palm trees that hint at physical settings.  In the present composition, St. Joseph is shown giving an apple to the infant Christ, while the young St. John and two angels look on.  As Bernard Aikema has, however, noted, the iconography of these drawings may have been of less interest to Tiepolo than the compositions themselves.³

1. J. Byam Shaw and G. Knox, The Robert Lehman Collection: Italian Eighteenth Century Drawings, vol. VI, Metropolitan Museum, New York 1987, p. 104, under cat. no. 78
2. G. Knox, Tiepolo: A Bicentenary Exhibition 1770-1970, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, 1970, under cat. no. 89
3. B. Aikema, Tiepolo and his Circle, Drawings in American Collections, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Art Museums, and New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1996-97, p. 222, under cat. no. 84