Although Giandomenico Tiepolo assisted his father in numerous decorative enterprises, his own talent lay in the depiction of contemporary life. The picture is one of Giandomenico's most evocative and appealing works. It shows an actress dancing with a young man wearing the traditional costume of the Commedia dell'arte character Mezzetino.

A travelling troupe of Commedia dell'arte actors entertains a party of Venetians enjoying a summer holiday on the mainland. Such performances often ended with a minuet, depicted here. The dancing couple may be the lovers Lelio and Isabella (sometimes called by other names), the only actors in the troupe who did not wear masks. Recognizable in the crowd of onlookers are other Commedia dell’arte characters: Columbine, the masked woman behind the dancers; Pulcinella, the man in white at center with a crooked nose and tall hat (a second Pulcinella is visible behind him); the Doctor, the sinister figure in a black robe and floppy hat; Coviello, the bass player at the right with feathers sprouting from his hat; Harlequin, the acrobat climbing the ladder leaning against one of the trees; and, possibly, Pasquariello, the masked man wearing a ruff and a close-fitting cap talking to the woman seated on the right.

Domenico also treated the dance theme in a fresco in the Foresteria of the Villa Valmarana, near Vicenza, and in three oil paintings: Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona; Musée du Louvre, Paris; and sold, Christie's, London, December 6, 2007, no. 41. The Barcelona and Paris paintings have pendants showing a quack doctor advertising his wares in a Venetian square. The third work was formerly paired with a picture of dancing dogs (private collection). No record exists of a pendant for the MMA painting.

The Barcelona, Paris, and Valmarana paintings were executed before Domenico left Venice for Madrid in 1762. Domenico painted the third pair of canvases in Madrid during the 1760s. There is no firm evidence for dating the MMA painting, but it is related stylistically to the artist’s two Stories of Abraham in the Carandini collection, Rome, and the Encampment of Gypsies in the Landesmuseum in Mainz, which Domenico painted at Würzburg, sometime before he returned to Venice in 1753. The early dating of the MMA picture is supported by its German provenance, although there is a tradition within the Merck family of Darmstadt who formerly owned the work that it was acquired by Johann Heinrich Merck (1741–1791) in Italy [see Ref. Albrecht 1963].

A related drawing by Domenico Tiepolo in the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London, shows a richly appointed Venetian interior with a couple dancing before a crowd of elegant people wearing three-cornered hats. On the verso is a black-chalk drawing of a carriage, very much like the one in the Wrightsman painting. Because of the dancing woman’s coiffure, the sheet has been dated before 1760 [see James Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo, London, 1962, pp. 47, 86, no. 62].

[2011; adapted from Ref. Fahy 2005]

Johann Heinrich Merck, Darmstadt (until d. 1791; ?purchased in Italy); the Merck family, Darmstadt (from 1791); Frau Caroline Reinhold-Merck (until 1963; sale, Sotheby's, London, July 3, 1963, no. 75, as "A Venetian Carnival Scene with Dancers," for £72,000 to Rosenberg and Stiebel, as agents for Wrightsman); Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1963–80)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Watteau, Music, and Theater," September 22–November 29, 2009, no. 24.

Pompeo Molmenti. G. B. Tiepolo: la sua vita e le sue opere. Milan, [1909], pp. 204, 206, ill., attributes this painting to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, calling it a copy with some variations of the painting formerly owned by princesse Matilde [now Louvre, Paris].

Eduard Sack. Giambattista und Domenico Tiepolo: Ihr Leben und Ihre Werke. Hamburg, 1910, pp. 120, 186, no. 311, pl. 111 [illustrated in reverse], catalogues it as a free variant by Giovanni Battista of the painting from the Algarotti collection [now Louvre, see Ref. Molmenti 1909] and dates it about 1760–61.

Pompeo Molmenti. Tiepolo: La vie et l'oeuvre du peintre. Paris, 1911, p. 162, pl. 165, calls it a copy with come variations of the painting now in the Louvre (formerly with princesse Mathilde, Paris), attributing it tentatively to Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo.

Verzeichnis der National Wertvollen Kunstwerke. Berlin, 1927, p. 10, no. 191, lists it as a work by Giovanni Battista in the collection of Frau and Dr. C. E. Merck, Darmstadt.

Giulio Lorenzetti. Le feste e le maschere veneziane. Exh. cat., Ca' Rezzonico. Venice, 1937, p. 53, under nos. 5–6.

Hans W. Hegemann. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Berlin, 1940, p. 141, fig. 88, calls it one of Giambattista's variations of the carnival scenes in fresco in the guest house at Villa Valmarana.

Antonio Morassi. "Domenico Tiepolo." Emporium 93 (June 1941), pp. 271, 282 n. 7, attributes the carnival scenes, of which this is one, to Giandomenico, associating them with his two signed frescoes at Villa Valmarana.

Antonio Morassi. Tiepolo. Bergamo, 1943, pp. 33, 48, no. 102, fig. 102, suggests that Giambattista and Giandomenico painted the picture in collaboration; dates it "1756 (?)".

Giulio Lorenzetti with the assistance of Giovanni Mariacher. Mostra del Tiepolo. Exh. cat., Palazzo d'Italia ai Giardini and Ca' Rezzonico (Museo del Settecento Veneziano). Venice, 1951, p. 169, mentions it as one of a number of Venetian carnival scenes by Giandomenico.

W. E. Suida and A. Lansford. The Samuel H. Kress Collection in the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art. New Orleans, 1953, p. 64, mention it as a variant of the Louvre composition, along with "The Minuet" from the studio of Giambattista, formerly with Colonel Robert Adeane, Cambridge, England.

F[rancisco]. J[avier]. Sánchez Cantón. La Colección Cambó. Barcelona, 1955, p. 77.

Antonio Morassi. "Giambattista Tiepolo's 'Girl with a Lute' and the Clarification of Some Points in the Work of Domenico Tiepolo." Art Quarterly 21 (Summer 1958), p. 186 n. 9, as by Domenico.

La peinture italienne au XVIIIe siècle. Exh. cat., Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. Paris, 1960, unpaginated, no. 440, includes it with the group of popular pastimes, which he gives to Domenico and dates about 1757; mentions the present work incorrectly as in the museum at Darmstadt.

Mercedes Precerutti-Garberi. "Asterischi sull'attività di Domenico Tiepolo a Würzburg." Commentari 11 (1960), p. 277, fig. 13, suggests a date shortly before 1754, toward the end of Domenico's sojourn in Germany.

Antonio Morassi. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G. B. Tiepolo. London, 1962, p. 10, as by Domenico.

Elisabeth Albrecht. "'In der Allee'." Mercksche Familien-Zeitschrift 21 (September 1963), pp. 112–16, ill. opp. p. 112, states that according to family tradition Johann Heinrich Merck bought the picture in Italy; gives additional provenance information.

"Coup d'oeil sur les grandes ventes de la saison." L'Oeil nos. 103–104 (July–August 1963), pp. 40, 42–43, fig. 1, as by Domenico and incorrectly from the collection of Lt.-Col. William Stirling of Keir.

Mercedes Precerutti. "Segnalazioni tiepolesche." Commentari 15 (July–December 1964), p. 253, as by Domenico.

Claus Virch. "Dreams of Heaven and Earth: Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo in the Wrightsman Collection." Apollo 90 (September 1969), pp. 177–79, pl. 1, suggests that Domenico painted it between 1757 and 1762, when he left Venice for Madrid.

Adriano Mariuz. Giandomenico Tiepolo. Venice, [1971], pp. 44, 48, 50, 130, colorpl. 2 (detail), and fig. 81, calls it one of Giandomenico's youthful masterpieces and dates it in the mid-1750s.

Pierre Rosenberg in Venise au dix-huitième siècle. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1971, pp. 175–76, mentions it as a close variant of the painting by Domenico in the Louvre.

Adriano Mariuz. "Domenico Tiepolo e la civiltà veneta di villa." Atti del congresso internazionale di studi sul Tiepolo. [Milan], [1972?], p. 16, attributes it to Domenico, noting that paintings of this type derive from the fêtes champêtres of Watteau, Pater, and Lancret, which the artist would have known from engravings.

Everett Fahy in "Paintings, Drawings." The Wrightsman Collection. 5, [New York], 1973, pp. 258–68, no. 27, figs. 1–6 (overall in color, black and white details), attributes it to Domenico, comparing it to "Christ Healing the Blind" (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford) of 1754, and suggests that it could have been painted during the artist's sojourn in Würzburg (1750–53), which would explain the German provenance; notes that it is "probably one of the earliest of his paintings of Venetian everyday life".

John Pope-Hennessy in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1979–1980. New York, 1980, pp. 42–43, ill. (color), dates it 1756 or earlier, when Domenico and his father were working at the Villa Valmarana.

Filippo Pedrocco. Disegni di Giandomenico Tiepolo. Milan, 1990, p. 14.

Adriano Mariuz. "Giandomenico Tiepolo (1727–1804)." Giandomenico Tiepolo: maestria e gioco, disegni dal mondo. Exh. cat., Castello di Udine. Milan, 1996, p. 23, ill. [English ed., "Domenico Tiepolo: Master Draftsman," Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996], believes the first idea for this subject may have come from the "Burlesche" tapestries, made for the Residenz in Würzburg around 1740–45; notes that these were based on drawings by the court painter Johann Rudolph Byss.

Linda Wolk-Simon. "Domenico Tiepolo: Drawings, Prints, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 54 (Winter 1996/97), pp. 27–30, figs. 42–43 (color), and ill. on front cover (color detail), comments that the artist "captured not only the cultural aesthetic of 'villegiatura' [country holiday], but also the very essence of the commedia dell'arte tradition"; identifies the characters in the ranks of the commedia dell'arte as Punchinello, Harlequin, Columbine, Coviello, the Doctor, the Captain, and perhaps Pasquariello, while the pair of lovers on the right were often known as Lelio and Isabella.

George Knox in Le menuet di Lorenzo Tiepolo. Exh. cat., Société Calypso, Geneva. Geneva, 2001, pp. 24–25, dates it later than the related compositions of the "menuet" by Domenico in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, and the Louvre, Paris, and a painting in a private collection, here attributed to Lorenzo Tiepolo.

Everett Fahy in The Wrightsman Pictures. New York, 2005, pp. 103–6, no. 30, ill. (color).

Important Old Master & British Pictures. Christie's, London. December 6, 2007, p. 110, under no. 41, fig. 1, notes that although no pendant is known for this work, the three related pictures depicting the minuet (Paris, Barcelona, and lot no. 41) all had pendants.

Heidrun Ludwig. Die Gemälde des 18. Jahrhunderts im Landesmuseum Mainz. Mainz, 2007, pp. 290–92 nn. 1336–37, fig. 240.

Katharine Baetjer in Watteau, Music, and Theater. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2009, pp. 70–71, no. 24, ill. (color).

Everett Fahy in Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977–2008. New York, 2009, p. 32.

The presence of painted canvas wrapped round the stretcher suggests that the picture was originally about four centimeters higher and perhaps two and a half centimeters wider.