Tiepolo's artistic training began in 1710 with the rather old fashioned painter Gregorio Lazzarini. However, by the middle of the second decade Tiepolo, as is reflected in his earliest commission of 1715-16 for a painting of The Sacrifice of Isaac to be placed over an arch in the Chiesa dell'Ospedaletto (M. Levey, Giambattista Tiepolo, His Life and Art, New Haven, 1986, fig. 12), was much influenced by the paintings of Piazzetta. Tiepolo's other commission of that period, a set of engravings after 16th Century paintings - Il Gran Teatro di Venezia - published in 1717 also reflect his knowledge of Piazzetta's drawings for book illustrations. Tiepolo probably also studied at the informal academy set up by Piazzetta, as shown in Tiepolo's drawing recently sold at Christie's, London, 6 July 1993, lot 90, illustrated in color. The drawing of the Academy, which probably includes a portrait of Piazzetta and, among the students drawing the nude, a self-portrait of Tiepolo, shows in the dramatic contrasts of light and in the meticulous parallel shading the influence exerted by Piazzetta drawings, such as the studies of nudes in the Alverà Collection, Venice, A. Bettagno et al., G.B. Piazzetta, Disegni-Incisioni-Libri-Manoscritti, exhib. cat., Venice, Fondazione Cini, 1983, nos. 1-15, illustrated, and early etchings such as Saint Anthony adoring the Christ Child, ibid., no. 118, illustrated.
The present drawing, albeit in a different technique, has many of the same qualities of the Academy study, although the crosshatching and the stippling to suggest the rays of light are even more print-like. The very elongated figures, seen from below in a dramatic perspective enhanced by the sharply defined light, recall Piazzetta paintings from the same period, 1715-20, such as The Adoration of the Shepherds in the Museo Civico, Padua, R. Pallucchini, L'Opera Completa del Piazzetta, Milan, 1982, no. 5, illustrated. Two other pen drawings from this period of comparable character, Saint Anthony of Padua and the Discovery of the Miser's Heart and The Holy Family adored by Saints Sebastian and Francis were sold respectively at Sotheby's, New York, 12 January 1990, lot 59, and Sotheby's, London, 6 July 1992, lot 164, both illustrated