.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Domenico included animals in many of his drawings - from mountain goats to monkeys to owls to dogs, lions, elephants, ostriches and even crocodiles. Very few of these, however, were drawn from life. Rather, he appropriated many of these animals from prints by Stefano della Bella (1610-1664), and, as in the present lot, by Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767). Tiepolo most likely became aware of Ridinger, who was based in Augsburg, when he was working in Würzburg with his father on the frescoes for the Residenz between 1750-53. Animals related to Ridinger's prints appear in the frescoes at Würzburg and Domenico's later frescoes for Villa Zianigo near Padua, completed at the end of the 18th Century, demonstrating that he returned to this library of images throughout his career (see J. Byam Shaw, 'The remaining frescoes in the Villa Tiepolo at Zianigo', The Burlington Magazine, CI, no. 680, November 1959, pp. 391-95 for the relationship between Ridinger's animal prints and Tiepolo's frescoes at Zianigo).
Two of the mountain goats in this composition derive from an etching by Ridinger that was part of his series Betrachtung der wilden Thiere first published in 1736 (Thienemann 234). As was often his practice, Tiepolo did not merely copy Ridinger's print, but rearranged and reinterpreted the composition to create something entirely new. Whereas Ridinger's print presents two of the animals alone in a sprawling mountainous landscape, Tiepolo has created a genre scene where the animals still dominate the landscape, but it now includes a shepherd leaning against a rock and resting in the lower left quadrant of the composition. The mountain goat standing on the rocky ledge on the left side of the drawing has the same general stance as the one in Ridinger's print. The goat behind it in the engraving is now in Tiepolo's drawing below the ledge walking down a path.
Domenico returned to Ridinger's print in other works including a drawing now in the Morgan Library, New York which reframes the present composition, focusing on just the goat on the rocky ledge and the other seen from behind walking down a path (F. Stampfle and C.D. Denison, Drawings from the Collection of Lore and Rudolf Heinemann, exh. cat., New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, no. 118). Another drawing from the collection of Paul Wallraf expands the composition to include a third animal and two riders on rearing horses in the lower left foreground (see A. Morassi, Venezianische Handzeichnungen des Achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, Venice, 1959, pp. 71-2, no. 111).
Domenico appropriated elements from his father's paintings, frescoes and drawings in his work throughout his career. The single figure of a resting traveller in the present lot is an adaptation of a figure in one of Giambattista's most celebrated paintings, The Death of Hyacinth, now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid. Giambattista's dying Spartan prince is transformed into a languid traveller by Domenico. The son has also reversed the pose from his father's painting and dressed the traveller in the humble clothing of a peasant, complete with an upturned hat by his side.
The Death of Hyacinth dates from the early 1750s, the same period that Giambattista and Domenico were in Würzburg, and around the same time it is believed they were introduced to the works of Ridinger in Augsburg. However, it is difficult to date the present sheet as Domenico returned throughout his career to a repertoire of images, refashioning their identities and settings as he saw fit. The various animals from Ridinger's prints which first appear in some of Giambattista's frescoes at Würzburg in the 1750s reappear in Domenico's frescoes from the late 1750s through to the 1790s at Zianigo. The figure of Hyacinth, as adapted for the present drawing, also appears in one of Domenico's frescoes of Punchinello, and two other figures in The Death of Hyacinth are in Domenico's series of drawings of the life of Punchinello, Divertimenti per li ragazzi also done late in his career (K. Christiansen, ed. Giambattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770, exh. cat., New York, 1996, pp. 176-77, under no. 23).
Two of the mountain goats in this composition derive from an etching by Ridinger that was part of his series Betrachtung der wilden Thiere first published in 1736 (Thienemann 234). As was often his practice, Tiepolo did not merely copy Ridinger's print, but rearranged and reinterpreted the composition to create something entirely new. Whereas Ridinger's print presents two of the animals alone in a sprawling mountainous landscape, Tiepolo has created a genre scene where the animals still dominate the landscape, but it now includes a shepherd leaning against a rock and resting in the lower left quadrant of the composition. The mountain goat standing on the rocky ledge on the left side of the drawing has the same general stance as the one in Ridinger's print. The goat behind it in the engraving is now in Tiepolo's drawing below the ledge walking down a path.
Domenico returned to Ridinger's print in other works including a drawing now in the Morgan Library, New York which reframes the present composition, focusing on just the goat on the rocky ledge and the other seen from behind walking down a path (F. Stampfle and C.D. Denison, Drawings from the Collection of Lore and Rudolf Heinemann, exh. cat., New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, no. 118). Another drawing from the collection of Paul Wallraf expands the composition to include a third animal and two riders on rearing horses in the lower left foreground (see A. Morassi, Venezianische Handzeichnungen des Achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, Venice, 1959, pp. 71-2, no. 111).
Domenico appropriated elements from his father's paintings, frescoes and drawings in his work throughout his career. The single figure of a resting traveller in the present lot is an adaptation of a figure in one of Giambattista's most celebrated paintings, The Death of Hyacinth, now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid. Giambattista's dying Spartan prince is transformed into a languid traveller by Domenico. The son has also reversed the pose from his father's painting and dressed the traveller in the humble clothing of a peasant, complete with an upturned hat by his side.
The Death of Hyacinth dates from the early 1750s, the same period that Giambattista and Domenico were in Würzburg, and around the same time it is believed they were introduced to the works of Ridinger in Augsburg. However, it is difficult to date the present sheet as Domenico returned throughout his career to a repertoire of images, refashioning their identities and settings as he saw fit. The various animals from Ridinger's prints which first appear in some of Giambattista's frescoes at Würzburg in the 1750s reappear in Domenico's frescoes from the late 1750s through to the 1790s at Zianigo. The figure of Hyacinth, as adapted for the present drawing, also appears in one of Domenico's frescoes of Punchinello, and two other figures in The Death of Hyacinth are in Domenico's series of drawings of the life of Punchinello, Divertimenti per li ragazzi also done late in his career (K. Christiansen, ed. Giambattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770, exh. cat., New York, 1996, pp. 176-77, under no. 23).