Claw's head

A studio drawing by Giambattista Tiepolo of a head of a young man with large eyes looking uncertainly from under regular arched eyebrows and a short saddle nose, with a soft ruffle below the neck, was formerly titled The Head of an African Boy. This type of beauty was repeated several times in the compositions of the Tiepolo family members. Maria Mrozińska, a Polish researcher on the famous Venetians' works, linked the drawing with the head of St John in the painting Communion of St Lucia in the Santi Apostoli Church in Venice, painted between 1740 and 1745. However, Georg Knox, an English researcher on Tiepolos' works, verified that hypothesis, stating that the drawing corresponds with the representation of the head of the page kneeling on the steps in front of the throne of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and holding a cushion with a ducal mitre intended for Harold, Bishop of Würzburg. The scene is set in the fresco The Enfeoffment of the Würzburg Bishop with the Duchy of Franconia by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Reichstag in Würzburg in 1168. The fresco was painted in 1751 in the Imperial Hall (Kaisersaal) in the Bishop's residence in Würzburg. Some minor differences between the fresco and sketch are the brighter lighting of the claw's nose in the painting and the reduction of its eyes.The study was made with black and white crayons on thin blue Venetian paper. The hero of the scene, Harold (Harald) von Höchheim, came from the Frankish nobility. He was parish priest 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.

Ewa Gwiazdowska