Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770
Angelica and Medoro
ca. 1740-1745
15 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches (384 x 287 mm)
Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk.
2017.242
Thaw Collection.
Notes
In this scene from Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso, the pagan princess Angelica carves the name of her lover, the young knight Medoro, into the bark of a tree. The artist depicted the subject in a number of drawings and at least one fresco, and various sketches by his son Domenico, also now in the Morgan, are clearly derived from the elder Tiepolo's various interpretations of the theme. This sheet--so finished that it may have been conceived as an independent work of art--is stylistically akin to other drawings of the early to mid-1740s. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: Letters "PA" over trefoil on a stick.
Associated names
Saxe-Altenburg, Duke of, former owner.
Delacre, Maurice, 1862- former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
Delacre, Maurice, 1862- former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
Bibliography
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 365, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, no. 40.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, no. 40.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
Department