Hercules Standing

Life drawing has long been regarded as fundamental to artistic training. This monumental sheet was created toward the beginning of the artist's long and immensely successful career, probably about 1718-20. The forceful modeling of the nude figure relates it to works by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, who exercised a profound influence on the young Giambattista Tiepolo. While academic studies of this type are sometimes related to paintings, their primary purpose was didactic. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"