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 The Savile Gallery, London, Drawings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, exhib. cat., 1928, no. 2, reproduced
Duc de Talleyrand, Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt;
The British Rail Pension Fund;
from which purchased by the present owner

Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Disegni veneti di collezioni inglesi, 1980, p. 63, no. 91, reproduced

A. Morassi, Dessins Vénitiens du Dix-huitième Siècle de la Collection du Duc de Talleyrand, Milan 1958, p. 15, no. 15, reproduced, fig. 15

Glued at the four corners on the trimmed original album page. Condition is good, paper, pen and ink and wash, fresh. Little and light scattered small stains to the right margin and one at the top of the angel's wings. Very minor slight foxing at the bottom edge. Sold mounted and framed in a modern wooden frame.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This drawing and also lots 55, 58 and 59 are part of the famous and much admired series of about seventy-five variations by Giambattista Tiepolo on the theme of the Holy Family, drawings which rank among the highpoints of the artist's draughtsmanship.  The drawings were originally bound in a single album, one of several that that the painter deposited with his son Giuseppe Maria, a priest at the church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, when he left for Spain in 1762.  The Holy Family album was also later owned by the sculptor Antonio Canova, and was taken apart after the sale of the collection of Edward Cheney, in 1885. 

These four sheets were subsequently bought by the Duc de Talleyrand.  Antonio Morassi, in his catalogue of the Talleyrand Collection (see Literature)writes that this renowned collection was formed slowly and without a real program, the collector guided simply by his own sensibility and highly refined taste.¹  The Duc de Talleyrand owned, among his Venetian drawings, no fewer than 31 sheets by Giambattista, all of the highest quality.  It seem he may have inherited his passion for Venetian art from his uncle the Marquis de Biron; see also the previous lot, Lagoon Capriccio with a tower by Francesco Guardi.

The drawings in the Holy Family series are dated by George Knox to circa 1754-62.  He has also postulated, more specifically, that they could have been executed around 1760, when Giambattista was incapacitated by gout and unable to work normally.  Bernard Aikema has suggested that the series could have been intended to serve as models for Giambattista's sons, Domenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo.²  Whether or not this was the case, Tiepolo surely executed these exquisite bravura sheets as independent works of art, and none can be related to a known painting by the artist.  

Giambattista's extraordinary skill in taking advantage of the white surface of the paper to suggest areas of light, together with his subtle use of the pen and abundant wash have created in these drawings some of the most poetic images on the theme of the Holy Family.  Tiepolo has produced not only the most extraordinarily imaginative compositional variations, but has also adapted the traditional iconography of the Holy Family, incorporating a variety of additional elements through the course of the series, which results in each drawing being a truly different interpretation of the subject, and the series being a real virtuoso tour-de-force.  

Here, the Child seated on the Virgin's lap is moving towards an almost kneeling St Joseph, while a group of praying angels observe the scene.  A classical column behind the Holy Family adds an element of religious solemnity to the events.  Tiepolo often uses these architectural devices to complete and enrich the mise-en-page (see also lot 59).  As Knox wrote, describing another of this sheet in the series: ‘They float on the page like exquisite arabesques, and together they represent the most magnificently sustained testimony to Giambattista’s graphic inventiveness.’ ³ 

¹ A. Morassi, op. cit., pp. 9-10

² Tiepolo in Holland, Works by Giambattista and His Circle in Dutch Collections, exh. cat., Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 1996, p. 34 

³ J. Byam Shaw and G. Knox, Italian Eighteenth-Century Drawings in the Robert Lehman Collection, Milan 1987, p. 122