STUDIO OF GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO (VENICE 1696-1770 MADRID)

When published by Antonio Morassi in 1962 (loc. cit.) this set of four allegorical busts was included in a group of ten detached frescoes, at that time in the collection of Count Guy de Jacquelot du Boisrouvray (loc. cit.). The set was unillustrated and published with only a loose description defining the group as a whole, describing them as by Domenico Tiepolo and followers. The remaining frescoes were presumably among those offered across multiple lots with the same provenance in these Rooms in 1996 (loc. cit.). The grisailles in the 1996 sale are by a variety of hands and it is therefore impossible to know which Morassi classified as by Domenico, as from the family studio and which were instead the work of followers. Indeed, in 1996 the present four busts were offered together in a lot with two further works of a separate hand, an Allegory of War and an Allegory of Victory, both autograph works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Like the present set, the two allegories had been included in Morassi's set of ten in the du Boisrouvray collection. According to the catalogue, however, the scholar revised his opinion of the latter upon seeing them post-cleaning and restored them to Giovanni Battista's oeuvre.

According to Morassi, all ten grisaille frescoes came 'from a villa in the Veneto', though it is not known which one. The faux Greek inscriptions, which are nonsensical and presumably intended to evoke an air of antiquity, are similar to those employed in the Personification of Virtues in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. nos. 43.85.12-43.85.16). The Metropolitan Museum frescoes were among those commisioned from Giovanni Battista by Count Giorgio Marchesini for Palazzo Valle-Marchesini-Sala, Vicenza, in 1760 and executed with the assistance of Domenico, and of Francesco Zugno and Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna.