(Venice 1727–1804)
A centaur and a female faun in a landscape, signed Dom.° Tiepolo f., numbered “27”, pen, brush, brown ink, brown wash, on laid paper, 19,2 x 26,5 cm, laid down old on another laid paper, browned, somewhat stained, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Private property, Austria.

The attribution to Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo was confirmed by Prof. Adelheid M. Gealt, Prof. Bert W. Meijer and Prof. Mauro Lucco on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph.

The present, hitherto unpublished, drawing can be added to a group of more than 140 sheets by Domenico Tiepolo, which the artist dedicated to the adventures of centaurs, fauns, satyrs, and nymphs. The scene which is depicting a centaur and a female faun in a landscape may be a variation of the theme „Nessus and Deianeira“ from Greek mythology. The centaur Nessus desired Deianeira, the beautiful wife of the demi-god Hercules, and abducted her. Hercules shot Nessus with a poisoned arrow. In fact, Hercules is not visible in the scene but the mace in the right foreground, which can be often seen as attribute next to Tiepolo’s centaurs, may point to him. The theme of the centaur had a great fascination on Tiepolo. The artist included it in frescos, paintings and drawings in the 1750s. The peak of dedicating himself to the theme culminated in the monochrome frescos in the Villa Tiepolo in Mirano near Zianigo, northeast of Padua. The frescos decorated two rooms: The camera dei Satiri was begun in 1759 and completed in 1771; the decoration of the Camerino dei Centauri was completed about 20 years later in 1791. Even though the rooms exist today the frescos were detached from the walls and are kept in the collection of the Museo del Settecento Veneziano in the Palazzo Rezzonico in Venice.

In his comprehensive study about the drawings by Domenico Tiepolo John Byam Shaw counted the group of landscapes with satyrs and centaurs among his most attractive and most inventive subjects (J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo, London 1962, p. 41). They show female and male satyrs and centaurs at various occupations: hunting, collecting wood, dancing or fighting against bulls and lions. Like the most drawings of this group including the present sheet they were personally signed and numbered in pen and brown ink by the artist. Shaw dated the group between 1751 and 1791 and into the time of the fresco’s origins in the Villa Tiepolo. The majority of these drawings may not have been intended as preliminary studies or sketches for later works but were considered as autonomous artworks which Tiepolo executed on the demand of patrons and collectors; for this reason only few drawings of this kind may have left the artist’s studio during his lifetime. Most drawings were kept in the workshop together with the drawing albums of his father. They reached the market only after the death of Domenico and became sought-after collector’s items.

In 1974 Jean Cailleux published an extensive article about a group of mythological drawings with satyrs, fauns and centaurs. He listed more than 100 drawings, of which 77 were dedicated to centaurs. (J. Cailleux, „Centaurs, Fauns and Female Fauns and Satyrs among the Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo“, in: The Burlington Magazine, June 1974, Vol. 116, No. 855, pp. i-xxviii). In 2016 Adelheid M. Gealt added another group of 29 sheets with centaurs to the hitherto known group (Gealt, Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, Master Drawings from the Anthony J. Moravec Collection, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington 2016, pp. 36-44). The majority of the scenes show female satyrs abducted by centaurs; only 20 drawings show a romantic side of affectionate centaurs.

The newly discovered present sheet depicting the theme of Nessus and Deianeira is an excellent example of the rare romantic drawings within the group of fauns and satyrs by Domenico Tiepolo. The sheet is executed particularly fine and is lovingly designed and is therefore a significant addition to the graphic oeuvre of the artist. A comparable drawing with the theme is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. 37.165.58), two other sheets are kept in the British Museum (Inv. 1885,0509.8; 1885,0509.10), and one in the Albertina in Vienna (Inv. 24072).

We are grateful to Prof. Adelheid M. Gealt for the scientific support in cataloguing the present drawing.