Bacchus and Ariadne
c. 1743/1745
Artist, Venetian, 1696 - 1770


NGA, West Building, M-105, S
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 214 × 232.4 cm (84 1/4 × 91 1/2 in.)
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Accession
1960.6.36
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Possibly painted for a palace in Venice.[1] Probably Francesco Artaria [1744-1808], Como and Venice; from 1798 Villa Giròla, near Blevio; by descent to Domenico Artaria, inventoried in the Villa Giróla c. 1829;[2] by descent to August Artaria [d. 1893], who upon the sale of the villa in 1870 took it to Vienna, where it remained in the warehouse of the family firm, Artaria & Co., until rediscovered in 1900;[3] sold 1911 via an unknown dealer in Berlin to (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris);[4] purchased 1927 by (Galerie Van Dieman, Berlin-Amsterdam-New York); sold 1927 or 1928 to a private collector, New York,[5] probably identical with the following. William Robert Timken [1866-1949] and Lillian Guyer Timken [1881-1959], Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and following Mr. Timken's death, New York City;[6] bequest 1960 to NGA.
[1] Based on a now lost letter written by Tiepolo to an unknown addressee from Madrid on 7 August 1764, most scholars have maintained that the original location of the painting (along with two others that were part of the same commission) may well have been the staircase of a Venetian palace.
[2] Heinrich Modern, "Les peintures de Tiepolo à la Villa Girola", Gazette des Beaux Arts 3d ser., vol. 27 (1902): 477; Hans Posse, "Der Triumph der Amphitrite von Giovanni Battista Tiepolo", _Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst_61 (1927-1928): 370.
[3] Posse 1927-1928: 370, 372.
[4] Posse 1927-1928: 372.
[5] Posse 1927-1928: 372 is the most complete source for this part of the provenance. The prospectus from Van Diemen is preserved in NGA curatorial files.
[6] According to notices in The New York Times, 25 October 1959: 70, and 27 October 1959: 39, Mrs. Timken had begun assembling, and lending, her considerable collection of paintings in the 1920s.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1967
Loan for display with permanent collection, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, 1967-1971.
Bibliography
1902
Modern, Heinrich. "Les peintures de Tiepolo à la Villa Girola." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 3rd. ser., vol. 27 (1902): 477-488, repro. 485; 3rd. ser., vol. 28 (1902): 239-241.
Modern, Heinrich. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Eine Studie. Vienna, 1902: 6-16, pl. 2.
1906
Sticotti, Piero. "Review of Giulio Caprin, Trieste." Archeografo Triestino, 3rd. ser., vol. 3.1 (1906): 193, as not by Tiepolo.
1909
Molmenti, Pompeo. G. B. Tiepolo. La sua vita e le sue opere. Milan, 1909: 277-278, repro. 280, as not by Tiepolo.
1910
Sack, Eduard. Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo. Ihr Leben und Ihre Werke. Hamburg, 1910: 203, no. 409, fig. 202.
1911
Molmenti, Pompeo. G. B. Tiepolo. Paris, 1911: 212-214, pl. 225.
1913
Illustrated Catalogue of the Twelfth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dtuch, Flemish, Italian and English Schools, being a Portion of the Sedelmeyer Gallery. Paris, 1913: 86, no. 56, repro.
1920
Mauclaire, Camille. Princes de l'esprit. Paris, 1920: 254-256.
1927
Posse, Hans. "Der Triumph der Amphitrite von Giovanni Battista Tiepolo." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 61 (1927-1928): 370-372, repro. 373.
1931
Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931. Translated as Italian Paintings in America. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 3:pl. 587.
1938
Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by the Two Tiepolos, Giambattista and Giandomenico. Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago, 1938: 39.
1943
Morassi, Antonio. Tiepolo. Bergamo, 1943: 22, fig. 53.
1955
Morassi, Antonio. G. B. Tiepolo. His Life and Work. London, 1955: 145.
1962
Morassi, Antonio. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G. B. Tiepolo. London, 1962: 30, fig. 260.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 127.
1968
Pallucchini, Anna. L'opera completa di Giambattista Tiepolo. Milan, 1968: 106, no. 137, repro.
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 114, repro.
1970
Cailleux, Jean. "Tiepolo and Boucher." In Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi sul Tiepolo. Milan, 1970: 88.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 198.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 340, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:454-456; 2:pl. 326.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 390, repro.
Pignatti, Terisio. Five Centuries of Italian Painting from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. Houston, 1985: 190.
1992
Bailey, Colin B. "'The Greatest Work of the Painter Shall Be History': History Painting in the Blaffer Collection." In Masterpieces of Baroque Painting from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1992: 96.
1993
Gemin, Massimo, and Filippo Pedrocco. Giambattista Tiepolo. Venice, 1993: 101, 338, no. 244, repro.
Brown, Beverly Louise. Giambattista Tiepolo: Master of the Oil Sketch. Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth. Milan and New York, 1993: 203-205, under no. 21.
1996
De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 301-308, repro. 303.
2002
Pedrocco, Filippo. Giambattista Tiepolo. Milan, 2002: no. 146/3, repro.
2018
Ferrier, Lorraine. "Discovering Tiepolo's 'Bacchus and Ariadne' Anew: Conservation effort reveals hidden elements in Venetian master's painting." The Epoch Times (12 June 2018 (updated 8 October 2018).
Wikidata ID
Q20177940