From Publishers Weekly
Toward the end of his life, Venetian painter Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804) produced a remarkable set of drawings about the commedia dell'arte character Punchinello. This familiar comic figure was grotesque, dishonest and lecherous, but Domenico transformed him into something sympathetic and universal. The cycle of 104 pen-and-brown-ink drawings (77 are shown here in color, 27 in black-and-white) displays a world of Punchinellos: learning to walk, marrying, cooking polenta, at the circus, imprisoned, dying and being buried. Executed in a casual style, the drawings are deeply felt and vividly rendered. The series was sold and dispersed in 1921, and this is the first time it has been assembled since. Gealt, a curator at Indiana University Art Museum, provides a useful introduction and annotations discussing the cycle's meanings and possible intended arrangement (the order cannot be determined with certainty). A beautiful, unusual series, admirably assembled.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Domenico Tiepolo studied under his famous father, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. His tour de force, done at the end of lifeprobably for his own pleasureis this series of 104 drawings depicting the life and adventures of the popular commedia dell'arte character, Punchinello. In 1921 the set was sold and dispersed. Through the efforts of Gealt and the publisher, 77 of the drawings were tracked down and are reproduced in exquisite facsimile. The rest are in black and white. Domenico's iconography is often enigmatic, at odds with the conventional Punch scenario. One astonishing drawing is of a Punchinello firing squad executing three Punchinello prisoners; it anticipates Goya's Third of May, 1808 . A wonderful album, highly recommended for all art collections. Eleanor Riley, Getty Conservation Inst. Lib., Marina del Rey, Cal.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
