Head of woman

A delicately shaded drawing of the young woman's head with a full face, looking thoughtfully to the right, was initially considered the work of Giambattista Tiepolo's son, Giandomenico. A researcher on the Tiepolos' works, Georg Knox, concluded that the author was his father, Giambattista, and dated the work to 1740. The idea of Giambattista's authorship is supported by the masterly use of facial modelling with smudged crayons. Thanks to that medium, the artist conveyed the freshness and naturalness of the girl's face, her personality and expressive gaze. It is not known who was depicted or what purpose the drawing served. It could have been a family member. A face similar to the one shown in the drawing is found in Giandomenico's painting the VIII Stations of the Cross, made in 1748 for the church of San Polo in Venice. The figure with this face is next to the kneeling figure of Anna Maria Tiepolo.The portrait was drawn with black, white and red and brown sanguine crayons on brown paper. On the left side of the card, the artist placed the outline of a face with a closed eye. The drawing belongs to 36 works created by the Tiepolo family currently held in the Cabinet of Graphic Arts at the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) in Szczecin.

Ewa Gwiazdowska