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Caricature of a Gentleman and Other Studies

1727–1804
Not on view
Domenico Tiepolo's proficiency as a caricaturist is well exemplified by this sheet, which if it were not signed, might easily be taken for the work of his father, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Above the standing gentleman appears a bouquet of the character heads that occur in many of Domenico's paintings and etchings; at the left border there are sketches of a hand and the tip of a quiver.
As Filippo Pedrocco observed in 1990, at least two of the character heads seem to have been preparatory for the series of engraving named "Raccolta di teste" (Collection of heads): the barbed head on the top right corresponds to one in no. 30 and the old man's head on the top left corresponds to one in no. 21 of the "Raccolta di teste" series (see Aldo Rizzi, The Etchings of the Tiepolo, London, 1971, pp. 404-5, no. 221, fig. 221; pp. 396-7, no. 212, fig. 212). As both sheets belong to the second part of the "Raccolta" published after Domenico Tiepolo's return from Spain in 1770, Pedrocco proposed a dating of the drawing - and of the engravings - between 1772 and 1774. Dirk Breiding (2010) has confirmed that the horizontal, phallic, object on the left is not a quiver, as identified by Jacob Bean and other scholars.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Caricature of a Gentleman and Other Studies
  • Artist: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1727–1804 Venice)
  • Date: 1727–1804
  • Medium: Pen and dark brown ink, brush and brown wash, over black chalk
  • Dimensions: 10-11/16 x 7-5/16 in. (27.1 x 18.5 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1937
  • Object Number: 37.165.68
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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The Burial of Punchinello, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Italian, Pen and brown ink, brown and yellow wash, over black chalk.
The Burial of Punchinello
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Lobster-Tail Burgonet
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Portrait of Nicolas Trigault in Chinese Costume, Peter Paul Rubens Flemish, Black, red, and white chalk, blue pastel, and pen and brown and black ink on light brown laid paper
Portrait of Nicolas Trigault in Chinese Costume
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The Betrothal of the Virgin, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Italian, Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk.
The Betrothal of the Virgin
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ca. 1400–1450 and later

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