Flying Cherubs on Clouds

Artist Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, 1727 - 1804)

Date18th Century

MediumPen and brown ink with brush and brown and grey wash over traces of graphite

DimensionsIMAGE: 7 1/2 x 11 3/16 in. (19.1 x 28.4 cm)
FRAMED: 18 7/8 x 20 5/8 in. (47.9 x 52.4 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineMuseum purchase, 1978

Object numberSN973

One of the last great Venetian artists, Domenico Tiepolo was the eldest surviving son of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. After entering his father's studio around the age of fifteen, the young Domenico soon showed artistic promise and was by the age of twenty, entrusted with the decorations for S. Polo in Venice. Though he is often measured against his famous father, his style is very different. He avoids the grandiloquence characteristic of Giambattista in favor of stronger, often playful, realism. This scene of Cherubs at play is a fine example of Domenico's late career works, both in subject and execution. Favoring themes of love and pleasure, he executed over twenty compositions of Cupids and Cherubs at play. They are believed to have been done as variations on a theme, which allowed him to fully explore the medium in an almost musical way. Also characteristic of Domenico's late career style is the use of pen to create tremulous contour lines, and brush with wash, which he applied in large, delicate areas to suggest volume and shadow.

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