Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Communion of the Apostles

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770

Communion of the Apostles

1725-1726
8 5/8 x 6 5/16 inches (219 x 160 mm)
Pen and black ink and wash, over black chalk, with red chalk addition at lower left, on laid paper; framing line in black ink.
IV, 87

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
Formerly attributed to Sebastiano Ricci, Cividal di Belluno 1659-1734 Venice.
An early work by the artist, redolent of the influence of his older contemporary Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, this finished drawing is related to a lost painting that Giambattista Tiepolo executed during the mid-1720s. The composition of the painting is recorded in an etching of 1726. Although the study corresponds to the etching in almost every detail, the apparent spontaneity of the underdrawings in black chalk suggests it is a preparatory sketch for--rather than a copy after-- the painting. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Associated names
Ricci, Sebastiano, 1659-1734, Formerly attributed to.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.
Bibliography
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, IV, 87, repr. (as Sebastiano Ricci, Christ Administering the Sacrament to St. Peter)
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department