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Lot Essay
An inscription on the verso of the drawing attests to its provenance from the Bossi-Beyerlen collection. The handwritten code – which includes a price in florins and kreutzers, and a serial number – appears on all the known drawings with this provenance, although it is unclear who was the author of these inscriptions soon after G. D. Tiepolo’s death, Giovanni Domenico Bossi, professor and court painter in Munich, began to collect large numbers of Tiepolo drawings.
While the style of the sheet is typical of Giovanni Domenico’s graphic production, the iconography of the composition is rare in the artist’s oeuvre. The scene on the recto appears to depict the funeral of a nun, perhaps a Saint or the abbess of one of the powerful Augustinian monasteries in Venice. A group of nuns veiled in black are mourning their dead companion. On the verso of the sheet is a lightly drawn sketch of another veiled figure with her arms crossed on her chest.
While the style of the sheet is typical of Giovanni Domenico’s graphic production, the iconography of the composition is rare in the artist’s oeuvre. The scene on the recto appears to depict the funeral of a nun, perhaps a Saint or the abbess of one of the powerful Augustinian monasteries in Venice. A group of nuns veiled in black are mourning their dead companion. On the verso of the sheet is a lightly drawn sketch of another veiled figure with her arms crossed on her chest.