Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770
Virgin and Child Seated on a Globe
1746
Pen and brown ink, with brown ochre and violet wash, over black chalk, on paper.
17 1/4 x 12 1/8 inches (451 x 308 mm)
Gift of Lore Heinemann, in memory of her husband, Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann.
1997.26
Notes: 

In March 1746, officials at the church of the Carmini in Venice decided that the church's old processional mace was not only in poor repair but was also too unwieldy, requiring three porters to carry it in procession. In August of that year, Tiepolo offered to design a replacement, and on 12 December 1746 presented his "disegno del penello" (a pen drawing) -- almost certainly this sheet. The project did not, however, progress beyond this stage, and instead, in 1748, the old mace was restored.
This remarkable drawing, which, like a number of others in the exhibition, formerly belonged to Prince Alexis Orlof, depicts the Virgin and Child accompanied by an angel holding a scapular, the emblem of St. Simon Stock, a thirteenth-century general of the Carmelite order. The sheet may be a rare example of Giambattista Tiepolo's designs for metalwork, in this case perhaps a processional mace for the Scuola Grande dei Carmini, Venice, for which he had produced a series of paintings in the early 1740s, and of which he became a member in 1743. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Watermark: Bow with arrow.

Inscription: 

Watermark: Bow with arrow.

Provenance: 
Prince Alexis Orloff; sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 29-30 April 1920, lot 138; Richard Owen, Paris; Tomas Harris, London; Dr. Rudolf J. and Lore Heinemann, New York.
Watermark: 
Associated names: 

Orloff, Alexis, Prince, former owner.
Owen, Richard, former owner.
Harris, Tomás, 1908-1964, former owner.
Heinemann, Rudolf J., former owner.
Heinemann, Lore, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Lore and Rudolf Heinemann. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, no. 40, repr.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 24, p. 54-55.

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