(Venice 1682-1754) Head of a bearded old man, gazing downwards, red and white chalk, on brownish laid paper, framing lines in pen and brown ink, 28 x 19,8 cm, an old attribution to "G. Ribeira" in pencil on the reverse, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Bernhard Himmelheber (1898-1966), Karlsruhe (Lugt 4035); private collection, Italy.

The attribution to Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was confirmed by Prof. Adelheid Gealt, Indiana University Art Museum. The attribution has recently also been confirmed by Prof. Bernard Jan Hendrik Aikema after examining the original drawing.

The present drawing may be a design for one of the paintings by Piazzetta dealing with Saint Francis from Paola (comp. Rodolfo Pallucchini, Piazzetta, Milan 1961, Cat. 55, 68). A comparable drawing with a bearded man looking downwards in red chalk, formerly in the collection of Carl zu Schwarzenberg, is published and illustrated in: Goethe collector and the eighteenth-century Venetian drawing. Masterpieces from the collections of Weimar at the Castello Sforzesco, Milan 2008, Cat. 21, p. 66 (fig. p. 67). In this drawing as well as in the present sheet the stylistic proximity with works by the Tiepolo-family is clearly visible.

Provenance:
Collection Bernhard Himmelheber (1898-1966), Karlsruhe (Lugt 4035); private collection, Italy.

The attribution to Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was confirmed by Prof. Adelheid Gealt, Indiana University Art Museum.

The present drawing may be a design for one of the paintings by Piazzetta dealing with Saint Francis from Paola (comp. Rodolfo Pallucchini, Piazzetta, Milan 1961, Cat. 55, 68). A comparable drawing with a bearded man looking downwards in red chalk, formerly in the collection of Carl zu Schwarzenberg, is published and illustrated in: Goethe collector and the eighteenth-century Venetian drawing. Masterpieces from the collections of Weimar at the Castello Sforzesco, Milan 2008, Cat. 21, p. 66 (fig. p. 67). In this drawing as well as in the present sheet the stylistic proximity with works by the Tiepolo-family is clearly visible.