Live Auction 17292Old Masters Evening Sale
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Venice 1727-1804)
Lot 44 The Property of a Trust

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Venice 1727-1804)

Punchinello carried off by an eagle

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GBP 791,250

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Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Venice 1727-1804)
Punchinello carried off by an eagle
signed ‘Dom.o Tiepolo f’ (lower right) and numbered, probably by the artist, ‘47’ (in the border, upper left)
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, watermark three crescents (cf. Heawood 867)
13 5/8 x 18 3/8 in. (34.8 x 46.6 cm)

Anonymous sale; London, Sotheby’s, 6 July 1920, part of lot 41 (where bought by Colnaghi for £610).
with Colnaghi, London, by whom sold, January 1921, to the following
with Richard Owen, Paris, by whom broken up and sold individually through Matthiesen, 24 March 1937, for £70 to
Brinsley, later Sir Brinsley, Ford (1908-1999).

Specialist note

Adelheid Gealt wondered whether Punchinello is here abducted or delivered (op. cit., p. 140), but the panicked reaction of the crowd at left seems to leave little doubt. Like a burlesque Ganymede, Punchinello is carried off to the heavens, but the storyline still needs further clarification at this point. Similar scenes of abduction, but involving a centaur rather than an eagle, are at the Louvre and the British Museum (inv. R.F. 36506 and 1925,0406.1 respectively; see ibid., nos. 60, 61).