Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice 1696-1770 Madrid)

Drawings with groups of heads are relatively rare in Giovanni Battista's drawn œuvre, although a small number has survived (see, for example, Christie's, London, 2 July 1996, lot 165 and Sotheby's, London, 4 July 2012, lot 46). Rarer still are those drawn in pen and black ink and grey wash, as is the case here. In a letter to the owner dated 29 July 1987 George Knox connected two of the heads seen in this drawing to those on Flora's chariot in The Triumph of Flora, datable 1743-1744, a picture in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (M. Gemin and F. Pedrocco, Giambattista Tiepolo, Venice, 1993, no. 307, ill.). Knox also pointed out that similar heads also appear in the Scherzi etchings.