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Lot Essay
Intimate in scale and freely painted, this canvas forms part of a group of compositions that Giandomenico Tiepolo painted in his early maturity during the 1760s and ‘70s. He was trained by his father, Giambattista, and acted as his key assistant during his formative years, playing a significant role in the highly successful Tiepolo workshop in Venice. A highly talented draughtsman, Giandomenico developed into an outstanding artist in his own right.
It is possible that this Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist was painted in Spain, where Giandomenico was working with his father between 1762 and 1770. The latter had been summoned to Madrid by King Charles III to paint the throne room ceiling frescoes in the Palacio Real, and then stayed to complete, among other works, the extraordinary seven altarpieces for the Franciscan church of San Pascual in Aranjuez (of which four survive intact, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid). Giambattista died in March 1770, just before the installation of the pictures, when Giandomenico returned to Venice, where he was to continue the tradition of monumental Venetian painting, executing the Glorification of the Giustiniani Family on the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge's Palace (now lost). Giandomenico executed several other canvases showing the Madonna and Child on a similar scale to the present painting. Mariuz lists five (A. Mariuz, Giandomenico Tiepolo, Venice, 1971, figs. 292-296), although none that include the young Saint John, and he compares the representations of the Child in these pictures to the putti in Giandomenico’s large altarpiece Three Angels appearing to Abraham (Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia). There has been debate over the attribution of some of the compositions in this group, with Giambattista’s authorship favoured in some instances. The attribution to Giandomenico of the present canvas was first proposed in 2000 by George Knox, and was later endorsed by Keith Christiansen, on the basis of digital images.
It is possible that this Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist was painted in Spain, where Giandomenico was working with his father between 1762 and 1770. The latter had been summoned to Madrid by King Charles III to paint the throne room ceiling frescoes in the Palacio Real, and then stayed to complete, among other works, the extraordinary seven altarpieces for the Franciscan church of San Pascual in Aranjuez (of which four survive intact, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid). Giambattista died in March 1770, just before the installation of the pictures, when Giandomenico returned to Venice, where he was to continue the tradition of monumental Venetian painting, executing the Glorification of the Giustiniani Family on the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge's Palace (now lost). Giandomenico executed several other canvases showing the Madonna and Child on a similar scale to the present painting. Mariuz lists five (A. Mariuz, Giandomenico Tiepolo, Venice, 1971, figs. 292-296), although none that include the young Saint John, and he compares the representations of the Child in these pictures to the putti in Giandomenico’s large altarpiece Three Angels appearing to Abraham (Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia). There has been debate over the attribution of some of the compositions in this group, with Giambattista’s authorship favoured in some instances. The attribution to Giandomenico of the present canvas was first proposed in 2000 by George Knox, and was later endorsed by Keith Christiansen, on the basis of digital images.