Pluto
Primary
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
(Venice, Italy, 1696–Madrid, Spain, 1770)
NationalityItalian, Europe
Datecirca 1743
MediumPen and brown ink with brush and brown wash over black chalk on cream antique laid paper, laid down
DimensionsSheet: 11 5/8 × 8 in. (29.6 × 20.3 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, The Suida-Manning Collection, 2017.1394
Rights Statement
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2017.1394
On View
Not on viewThis is one of a series of mythological figures, numbered and probably also titled by Tiepolo himself. Seven of the series have been identified as designs for sculptures in the garden of the Villa Cordellina at Montecchio Maggiore, near Vicinza, where Tiepolo executed an important cycle of frescoes in 1743. The other drawings, including this sheet, are logically thought to have been intended for the same function. This is seconded by their conception, of unusually compact and stable forms, and execution, in a more evenly dispersed and simply volumetric version of the typical pen-and-wash of Tiepolo’s maturity.
Exhibitions
