Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo
Two centaurs in combat
Auction Closed
July 6, 10:38 AM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo
Venice 1727 - 1804
Two centaurs in combat
Pen and brown and grey ink and brown and grey wash over traces of black chalk, within pen and grey ink framing lines;
signed in pen and ink, lower left: Dom. Tiepolo and numbered in pen and brown ink, upper left: 59, also bears various numberings, verso: No438 / 445 and 137 (crossed out)
190 by 272 mm
M. J. L. Vaudoyer
This drawing belongs to Domenico's extensive series of drawings of centaurs, satyrs and their families, described by James Byam Shaw as being 'the most delightful and original of all Giandomenico's allegorical and mythological subjects'.1 Byam Shaw believed that these drawings were executed as independent works of art and are datable between 1761 and 1791. Jean Cailleux instead dated the series earlier, between 1753 and 1762, and noted that it may once have contained up to one hundred drawings.2
1. J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo, London 1962, pp. 41-42
2. J. Cailleux, 'Centaurs, Fauns, Female Fauns, and Satyrs among the drawings of Domenico Tiepolo', The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXVI, no. 855 (June 1974), An Advertising Supplement