The head of Giulio Contarini, seen from behind, after Alessandro Vittoria

One of the series of fifteen drawings executed by Tiepolo after Alessandro Vittoria's bust of Giulio Contarini of 1576. The drawings are dated by George Knox and Thomas Martin to 1742-3. Most of them share the same provenance as this one. The marble prototype of the Procuratore di S. Marco is on the left side chancel of the church of Santa Maria del Giglio in Venice, G. Knox and T. Martin, op. cit., fig. 1. Because of the inaccessibilty of the bust high on the wall, George Knox and Thomas Martin suggested that these drawings were executed after a terracotta replica such as the one formerly with Heim Gallery in London rather than the marble bust (op. cit., figs. 2-3).
Tiepolo executed a similar series of drawings after a bust of Palma Giovane by Vittoria, B. Aikema, op. cit., nos. 95-6.
Another drawing of Contarini by G.B. Tiepolo was sold at Christie's New York, 28 January 2000, lot 39.