Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice 1696-1770 Madrid)

This drawing is of similar dimensions to those found in the Orloff album which are thought to have been given by Tiepolo to his son Giovanni Maria, before the elder Tiepolo left for Spain in 1762. Tiepolo would often explore one subject in various ways in a series of drawings. The Orloff album included six different versions of this scene (see Tiepolo: A bientenary exhibition, 1770-1970, exh. cat., Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, 1970, no. 14). As is often the case with these large-scale compositional drawings, it does not seem to relate to a painting or etching by the artist.