Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770
Bacchant and Bacchante
10 15/16 x 9 15/16 inches (278 x 252 mm)
Pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, on laid paper.
IV, 109a
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
Notes
One of a series of 108 drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo from an album bearing the title, "TIEPOLO DESSINS ORIGINAUX", inscribed by Edward Cheney, "E.C. Venice 1852 May 31 / bought from the Conte Corniani Algarotti".
Although this drawing is stylistically identical to others associated with the decoration of the Palazzo Clerici ceiling, the figures in this sketch do not reappear in either the fresco or the related oil sketch in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. The male figure may be a bacchant or perhaps the god Mercury, depending upon whether the staff he holds is an ivy-wrapped thyrsus or a caduceus entwined by two serpents. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Regarding the drawings for Palazzo Clerici, at the Morgan and elsewhere, see William Barcham, Tiepolo's Pictorial Imagination: Drawings for Palazzo Clerici (New York, Morgan Drawing Institute, 2017).
Watermark: none.
Although this drawing is stylistically identical to others associated with the decoration of the Palazzo Clerici ceiling, the figures in this sketch do not reappear in either the fresco or the related oil sketch in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. The male figure may be a bacchant or perhaps the god Mercury, depending upon whether the staff he holds is an ivy-wrapped thyrsus or a caduceus entwined by two serpents. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Regarding the drawings for Palazzo Clerici, at the Morgan and elsewhere, see William Barcham, Tiepolo's Pictorial Imagination: Drawings for Palazzo Clerici (New York, Morgan Drawing Institute, 2017).
Watermark: none.
Associated names
Algarotti, Francesco, conte, 1712-1764, former owner.
Algarotti, Bonomo, 1706-1776, former owner.
Algarotti-Corniani, Maria, former owner.
Corniani, Bernardino conte, former owner.
Cheney, Edward, 1803-1884, former owner.
Cure, Alfred Capel, former owner.
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.
Algarotti, Bonomo, 1706-1776, former owner.
Algarotti-Corniani, Maria, former owner.
Corniani, Bernardino conte, former owner.
Cheney, Edward, 1803-1884, former owner.
Cure, Alfred Capel, former owner.
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
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Drawings from New York Collections III, The 18th Century in Italy, 1971, p. 50, no. 95, repr.
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