Head of creaming man

The drawing of the expressive head of a screaming young man, in a straitjacket with the collar up and a flat cap of linen, slipped to the side, was executed by Giambattista Tiepolo with great sensitivity to the model’s psyche. The sketch was probably connected with preparations for work on the painting The Martyrdom of St John, Bishop of Bergamo, painted for Bergamo Cathedral in 1743-1745. Maria Mrozińska, a researcher into the work of the Venetian Tiepolo family, linked the sketch of the screaming young man with the figure of the young man leaning out from behind the column in the painting. There is a correspondence between the representations in the drawing and in the painting in elaborating the details of the head, facial expressions, and the collar arrangement. Differences can also be the result of a change of concept while painting the picture. Instead of the young man with delicate facial features shown in the sketch, the painting shows a young man with bushy curls without a cap. These changes and the use of a precise technique of delicately smearing the pigment to bring out the modelling of the face allow assuming Giambattista was the author of the drawing.The sketch was made on white paper with black and red crayons using the rubbing technique. The paper has a watermark - a seven-petalled flower on a stem with two leaves. It is part of the collection of works by the Tiepolo family members held in the Cabinet of Graphic Arts at the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) in Szczecin.

Ewa Gwiazdowska