Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Gravereaux Collection, Paris;
With Messrs Cailleux, Paris 

Jean Cailleux, 'Centaurs, Fauns, Female Fauns, and Satyrs among the drawings of Domenico Tiepolo', Supplement to the Burlington Magazine, June 1974, p. XII, reproduced p. VI, fig. 1

The drawing is not in good condition. The surface has been washed and the ink has sunk - it has lost freshness. There are still traces of foxing and some staining particularly at the bottom of the drawing. A crease-fold runs vertically towards the right of the sheet. Some old folds are visible on the top left corner and right bottom corner.
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This belongs to Giandomenico' s extensive series of drawings of centaurs, satyrs and their female counterparts, which Mr Byam Shaw believed were executed as an independent group for their own sake, probably betwen the years 1759 and 1791.¹ Jean Cailleux instead dated this series earlier, to between 1753 and 1762, and noted that it may once have comprised up to one hundred drawings. See also lot 121.

1.  See J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo, London 1962, p. 42