Animal drawings by Domenico are generally dated to the latter part of his career and associated with the decorations of the Tiepolo villa at Zianigo. James Byam Shaw suggested that Tiepolo was originally inspired by the animal prints of Stefano della Bella and by those of Johann Elias Ridinger, the Augsburg artist whom he may have met when he traveled to Wurzburg in 1750.
1
The present drawing is lively and humorous example of one of Domenico's animal studies, depicting dogs dancing in a landscape.
1. J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo, London 1962, pp. 42-45