Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Giovanni Domenico Bossi, with associated price code: f.12 No 3317;
by descent to his daughter Maria Teresa Carolina Bossi (1825-1881) who married Karl Christian Friederich Beyerlen (1826-1893),
his sale, Stuttgart, H.G. Gutekunst, 27 March 1882;
Wilhelm Lübke, Stuttgart;
with Joseph Baer & Sons, Frankfurt;
Dr. Hans Wendland, Lugano, 
his sale, Berlin, Ball and Graupe, 24 April 1931, lot 96;
Meyer-Ilschen Collection, Stuttgart;
bears an unidentified collector's mark on the verso

Stuttgart, Staaatgalerie, et al., Zeichnungen von Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Domenico und Lorenzo Tiepolo, 1970-71, p. 161, no. 172, reproduced in color p. 155

J. Byam Shaw, Reviews, 'Tiepolo Celebrations: Three Catalogues', Master Drawings, IX, no. 3, 1971, p. 272;
G. Knox, Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, Study and Catalogue Raisonné of the Chalk Drawings, Oxford 1980, vol. I, p. 277, no. M. 566

Hinged at the top. A section of the lower right edge and corner missing, the left corner cut and made up. At the top corners, stains from glue where hinged and two small brown ink spots on the chest of putto to the right. Little tear top left and a fold in the middle and few slight wrinkles in the paper in the upper section. Some surface dirt top and lower edge. The ink from the Bossi -Beyerlyn numbering visible through the recto. Paper still blue. Sold mounted and framed in a black painted, wooden, 20th century frame
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This is a study related to Giambattista's ceiling of the Scalzi Church, Venice, painted in 1745, the central part of which was destroyed by a bomb in 1915.  The subject of the ceiling was the miraculous translation of the Holy House of Loreto, with the Madonna and Child above.  The putti in the present sheet appear just beneath and to the left of the Madonna, among clouds (fig. 1).  Although some of the other studies in chalk on blue paper for the Scalzi ceiling have sometimes been considered to be records by Giandomenico of his father's composition,¹ both Byam Shaw and Knox agreed that the present study, because of its high quality, is definitely by Giambattista.  Byam Shaw in his review of the Stuttgart exhibition says of it: 'A striking contrast to these copies is provided by a drawing of Flying Putti...from a Württemberg private collection (no. 172), which is in my opinion rightly attributed to Giambattista.'²

1.  Summaries of the discussions about the Scalzi drawings can be found in Byam Shaw, op. cit., p. 271ff. and Knox, op. cit., p. 19ff.
2.  Byam Shaw, loc. cit.