Saint Anthony of Padua holding the Christ Child, supported by angels

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo executed many drawings of this appealing subject: the Beauchamp sale alone included nineteen variations on the theme (lots 19-38) and many have come to light since. J. Byam-Shaw, who regarded the subject as the 'most charming of Domenico’s religious series' (The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo, London, 1962, p. 34), observed that it derived from an oval painting by his father Giovanni Battista, now in the Prado (Giambattista Tiepolo 1696-1770, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, 1998, pp. 234-5).