Giandomenico Tiepolo (Venice 1727-1804)

These two unpublished studies likely date to the 1790s, when Giandomenico was working on frescoes for the family villa at Zianigo. During this last decade of his life, he produced several 'bacchanals' and promenade pictures, in the same vein as the present pair. The study here for Pulcinella and his companion repeats the couple that appear in a work formerly at Zianigo, otherwise known also as Villa Tiepolo-Duodo, but now held at Ca'Rezzonico, Venice (see A. Mariuz, Giandomenico Tiepolo, Venice, 1971, no. 383). And in the present baccanale, the woman dancing to the right relates to a figure in another composition known as La Furlana, no. 31 from the series Divertimeno per li regazzi (Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco), which is dated to c. 1800.