Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Armand Louis de Mestral de Saint-Saphorin (?);
Dr. Ferdinand de Cérenville, Lausanne (?);
by descent to Réné de Cérenville (?);
with Colnaghi, London; acquired in 1988

London, Colnaghi, Master Drawings, 1988, no. 36, reproduced (as Giambattista);
Gainesville, et al., 1991-93, no. 30, reproduced (as Giambattista or Giandomenico);
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Art Museums, and New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, Tiepolo and his Circle: Drawings in American Collections, 1996-97, no. 100, reproduced (as Giandomenico)

Three light horizontal creases towards bottom, centre and top of sheet, with some very slight dicolouration of paper around them, particularly visible on verso. Further slight discolouration around edges of sheet. Several tiny pinprick holes in the paper in various places, although only visible when held up to light. Watermark of three crescents and possibly some initials. Very slight wrinkling of paper surface around central crease (possibly from paper-making process). Mounted so that both sides visible, and therefore not examined out of frame. Chalk still good and strong.
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When this large and attractive drawing first appeared in the Colnaghi exhibition catalogue, it was correctly associated with Giambattista's large canvas The Banquet of Cleopatra, painted in 1743 and acquired by Francesco Algarotti for Augustus III of Saxony.  This picture is now in the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne.  The elements of the composition seen in the present sheet are the head of Cleopatra, her raised left arm, the right hand of Marc Anthony's friend Lucius Plancus, and the hand of a servant holding a plate behind Cleopatra.  In each case the details are exactly as they appear in the painting. 

In his entry on the present drawing in the Fogg exhibition catalogue, Bernard Aikema explains that the large number of preparatory drawings and the bozzetto that survive for the composition reveal the enormous care and thought that Giambattista devoted to the painting.  Although Aikema notes the high quality of certain parts of the drawing, it is on balance closer in style to the work of Giandomenico and was probably executed by him as a ricordo of specific details of his father's painting before it departed for Germany in 1744.  It is also possible that Giandomenico intended to produce an etching after the very elegant head of Cleopatra - as he did after two other heads from the painting - but no such etching seems in fact to have been made.  Whatever its intended function, this very accomplished work, skillfully drawn with an adept use of white heightening, makes an interesting contribution to our understanding of the Tiepolo studio practice.

Aikema also points out that the same graphite inscription of the initials GB appears on a chalk drawing by either Giambattista or Giandomenico, now in the Lugt Collection, Paris.  It is thought to have been written by a descendant of Armand Louis de Mestral de Saint-Saphorin and therefore this drawing probably also came from that illustrious collection.