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4 years ago

Old Master Paintings – Part 1

GIOVANNI BATTISTA

GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO, 1696 VENICE 1770 MADRID BEARDED HEAD OF A BISHOP (CA. 1735). PRELIMINARY STUDY FOR THE CEILING FRESCO OF SANTA MARIA DEL ROSARIO IN VENICE Oil on canvas. Relined. 33.7 x 30 cm. Accompanied by an expert’s report by Dr Alexander Rauch, ret. University lecturer Munich-Leipzig. Copies: scientific article (see lit.) Das Münster, 2/2019. This painting by Tiepolo has only recently been rediscovered and has been published in specialist literature. It shows the head of a white-haired old man in profile and inclined in to the left. He is characterized as a bishop due to the gold embroidered collar of a cope. The apparent chiaroscuro is in line with a series of further known head portraits by Tiepolo, that were, in part, probably also created as preliminary head studies for a multi-figured painting (compare Head study of an Oriental, San Diego Museum of Art or Head of an Old Man, ca. 1755, Trieste, exhibited in Rome 1941, Venice 1951, ill. in Aldo Rizzi 1971, p. 129). The enclosed expert's report regarding the painting on offer for sale in this lot as well as the multi-page scientific article follows that this is a preliminary oil study for an image detail for a ceiling fresco in the Church of Santa Maria Rosario dei Gesuati (1737- 1739). The figure probably depicts the Dominican Michele Gislieri (1504-1572), the future pope Pius V, beneath pope Clemens XI. Gianbattista Tiepolo is today considered as an outstanding artist of Venetian painting of the 18th century. As a student of Gregorio Lazzarini, he started working independently in 1717 and his further artistic development was especially defined by the painters Piazzetta, Bencovich and Sebastiano Ricci. Since the 1730s he became the absolute favourite master of Venice and was above all active creating frescos for numerous churches and palaces. Between 1750 and 1753 he created the famous staircase cei ling fresco in Würzburg. Between 1756 and 1758 he was the president of the Academy in Venice, soon after he was active at the Spanish court. When he died aged 74, his fame had spread all over Europe and had earned him commissions from royal courts in France, England and Russia. Besides the international standing of this master, not least because of its excellent painting quality, the present painting is of art historical interest, as it gives an insight into the working method and technique of Tiepolo. Famous artists from the Netherlands as well as Italy have created such head portraits as preliminary studies for larger works and to satisfy the collector’s market even back then. The painting on offer for sale in this lot is an important link in the working process of one of the most important ceiling frescos in Venice. According to Rauch this makes ”this rediscovery whether it depicts Albertus Magnus or Pius V an asset to art history”. Provenance: Formerly private collection, Brazil. Southern German private collection for decades. Literature: Alexader Rauch, Ein wiederentdecktes Werk des venezianischen Meisters Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Kopf eines Bischofs, in: Das Münster, Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, 72. year, 2/ 2019, pp. 147-151. Further bibliography listed here, including: Beverly Louise Brown, Gianbattista Tiepolo, Master of the Oil Sketch, Milan/New York, 1993. Beverly Louise Brown, Terisio Pignatti, Oerste Ferrari, Teresa Longyear, Giambattista Tiepolo: Master of the Oil Sketch, Abbeville Press, 1994. Massimo Gemin and Filippo Pedrocco, Giamb. Tiepolo, I dipinti, opera completa, Venice 1993. (Hier auch die Bozzetti des Deckenbildes behandelt). Antonio Morassi, G. B. Tiepolo, Phaidon Press, Cologne 1955. Antonio Niero, Filippo Pedrocco, cat.: Chiesa dei Gesuati, arte e devozione, Venice (Marsilio) 1994, p. 29. Anna Pallucchini and Joséphine le Foll, Tout l’Œuvre peint de Tiepolo, Flammarion, Paris 1990, no. 128 ff., p. 104. € 48.000 - € 60.000 Sistrix INFO | BID 74 HAMPEL ONLINE Visit www.hampel-auctions.com for around 6.000 additional images.

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