Head of old man

The drawing by Giambattista Tiepolo depicts the characteristic head of an older man with a long, sagging nose, clenched lips, baldness over his forehead and luxuriant curls at the back of his head, and eyes crinkling briefly. The sketch belongs to a group of drawings connected with the painting The Enfeoffment of the Würzburg Bishop with the Duchy of Franconia by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Reichstag in Würzburg in 1168. Harold (Harald) von Höchheim came from the Franconian nobility. He was pastor of the Haug Foundation and St. Gumpert's Church in Ansbach. In 1165, he became Bishop of Würzburg and held the position until he died in 1171. In the summer of 1168, during the period of the so-called Golden Freedom, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa bestowed upon him the title of Duke and extended his clerical authority to include secular power. Würzburg was thus elevated to the status of a duchy.A fresco immortalising that event was painted in 1751 in the Imperial Hall (Kaisersaal) in the Bishop's residence in Würzburg. The slight differences between the drawing and the fresco in the depiction of the head details are due to how the original concept contained in the preparatory drawing was modified to some extent. The drawing is made with black crayons on white paper. On the verso, i.e., the reverse of the sheet of paper, there is a pencil sketch of a woman's bust sleeping behind a table. She is supporting her head with one hand and leaning on the table top with the other.

Ewa Gwiazdowska