Three Cherubs and a Beribboned Staff

1750

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Associated Names
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Artist, Venetian, 1696 - 1770

The image shows a sketch of three cherubic figures with only their heads and shoulders depicted at various angles on the paper. The top figure has its head tilted back slightly with a gentle smile, the center figure looks downward with soft features, and the lower figure is positioned upside down and appears to be looking downward as well. All three figures have curly hair, drawn with expressive and fluid lines. The sketch focuses on the expressions and contour of the faces. The background is a textured, muted blue color that complements the warm, reddish-brown sketch lines. Additionally, there is a faint, loosely sketched element resembling a staff or scepter in the lower left part of the image.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    red chalk on blue paper heightened with white chalk; the tow upper cherubs' heads incised for transfer

  • Credit Line

    Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 38.5 × 23.2 cm (15 3/16 × 9 1/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1991.130.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Knox 1980, no. 234

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Johann Dominik Bossi [1767-1853], Munich; by descent to his daughter Maria Theresa Caroline [1825-1881], Munich, and by her marriage to Carl Christian Friedrich Beyerlen [1826-1881], Stuttgart; (sale H.G. Gutekunst Stuttgart, 27 March 1882); Dubini collection, Milan; Count Rasini, Milan; (sale, New York, Sotheby's, 13-14 January 1989, no. 211); (Kate Ganz, Ltd., London, 1989); (Nissman, Abromson and Co., 1991); purchased by NGA, 1991.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1989

  • Master Drawings. 1500-1900, Kate Ganz Ltd. at Douwes Fine Art, London, 1989, no. 26.

1992

  • Dürer to Diebenkorn: Recent Acquisitions of Art of Paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1992, 27, 43, no. 29.

2014

  • The Poetry of Light - La poesia della luce: Venetian Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Museo Correr, Venice, Venice, 2014 - 2015, no. 70.

Bibliography

1937

  • Morassi, Antonio. Disegni antichi dalla collezione Rasini in Milano. Milan, 1937: 48, no. LXX.

1980

  • Knox, George. Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo: A Study and Catalogue Raisonne of the Chalk Drawings. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980: 1, 240.

1992

  • Durer to Diebenkorn: Recent Acquisitions of Art on Paper. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 27, 43-44.

Inscriptions

by later hand, lower left verso in pen and brown ink (Bossi Beyerlen numbers): 48 X.rs1 / No 3341.; by later hand, lower center verso in graphite: no 94

Wikidata ID

Q64572372

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