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.

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.

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.

"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.

Jon Baumhauer. Letter. October 15, 1991, provides provenance information about the Merck family in Darmstadt.

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.

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.