Provenance

Edward Cheney

British, 1803 - 1884

Explore Selected Works

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1735/1740, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper (backed with eighteenth century paper), Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1982.39.1

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · 1735/1740 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper (backed with eighteenth century paper) ·  Accession ID  1982.39.1

We look up through an opening surrounded by a stone ledge, with clusters of people and clouds swirling into a blue sky up and away from us in this vertical, rectangular painting. From a distance, the scene looks like a complete illusion but up close, the people, clouds, and architecture are sketchily painted. The ledge running around the opening has a gold, oval medallion at each corner. Appearing to be carved from white stone, two bearded men with long hair recline against each medallion, flanking them to each side in front of large shells that curve up over the people and frames them. A few architectural structures extend up into the sky, including a pointed obelisk in the lower left corner, a pair of columns at the upper right, and what seems to be the mast of a ship at the top left. Most of the people have pale skin but some have more tan complexions, and a few, including those wearing feather headdresses near the upper left corner, have brown skin. The people wear windswept robes of pale, butter yellow, robin’s egg blue, rose pink, and ivory. The eye may drawn to a few vignettes, such as the man holding a rearing, chestnut-brown horse on the illusionistic ledge near the lower right, a nun wearing a white robe and holding a cross above him in the clouds, and, farthest away, a crowned person sitting on a throne.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy under Charles III, 1762, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.39

Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy under Charles III

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · 1762 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.4.39

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Head of a Magician, c. 1760, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper (still mounted on original Tiepolo album page), Gift of Mrs. Christian Aall, 1998.110.1

Head of a Magician

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · c. 1760 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper (still mounted on original Tiepolo album page) ·  Accession ID  1998.110.1

About two dozen men and women, almost all with pale skin, gather in a room with high, stone walls, with bars over the windows and iron manacles and chains hanging from the wall to our right in this horizontal painting. Most of the people are men, and many wear knee-length, long sleeved jackets, breeches, and stockings, and some wear white wigs. Three men and two women create a loose line across the stone floor, close to us. Near the center, a man stands wearing a coral-red coat with gold-colored buttons, navy-blue breeches, white stockings, buckled, black shoes, and a black tricorn hat. He faces us with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet planted widely apart. His ankles are manacled, and iron bars reach along his legs. To our left, a woman wearing a long, aquamarine-blue dress with a full, wide, hoop skirt kneels with arms spread wide, a handkerchief in one hand, in front of an older, portly man. He leans away from her with one hand raised, and skeleton keys hang from that wrist. To our right, a woman wearing a full, white, satin dress kneels facing us and looks up at a man wearing a black coat and hat, with white at the neck and cuffs, and white stockings. A sword hangs at his side. He holds up one hand, palm out, toward the woman in white. Both women wear pearl necklaces and white lace caps. The remaining people gather around the perimeter of the scene behind a low, brick-red wall. The head and shoulders of a boy with brown skin peeks out of the box near the man with the sword, to our right. The scene is surrounded by a band of gold and by a cobalt-blue, gold-edged curtain that flutters along the top and drapes down each side to puddle on the floor in the bottom corners.
William Hogarth, A Scene from The Beggar's Opera, 1728/1729, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1983.1.42

A Scene from The Beggar's Opera

William Hogarth · 1728/1729 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.42

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Holy Family, 1754/1762, pen and brown ink with gray-brown wash on cream laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.42

The Holy Family

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · 1754/1762 · pen and brown ink with gray-brown wash on cream laid paper ·  Accession ID  2007.111.42

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Figure on a Cloud, 1750/1760, pen and brown ink and wash on laid paper, Gift of Donald Stone in memory of David Stone, 1999.110.2

Figure on a Cloud

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · 1750/1760 · pen and brown ink and wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1999.110.2

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Study for a Ceiling with the Personification of Counsel, before c. 1762, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.100

Study for a Ceiling with the Personification of Counsel

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · before c. 1762 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.100

Bibliography

1960

  • Knox, George. Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum. [London], 1960: 4.

1971

  • Levey, M. Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Italian Schools. National Gallery, London, 1971: 247.

1982

  • Brigstocke, Hugh. William Buchanan and the 19th Century Art Trade: 100 Letters to His Agents in London and Italy. New Haven, 1982: 465.