The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 27, 2023

A Spring Shower

1790s-1804

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

(Italian, 1727–1804)

Italy, Venice, 18th century

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over black chalk; framing lines in brown ink over graphite

Support: Cream(1) laid paper

Image: 29.6 x 41.5 cm (11 5/8 x 16 5/16 in.); Sheet: 35.5 x 47.1 cm (14 x 18 9/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1937.573

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, who often depicted multiple Punchinellos (a clown figure) in his drawings, added two in this scene—the figure on the left with a cloak comically draped over his head, and another on the right holding an umbrella.

Description

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, an important Venetian fresco painter of the 18th century, is best known today for his highly finished historical drawings that ingeniously incorporate details from daily life. In his series of 104 drawings known as I Divertimenti per li Regazzi (Enjoyments for Children), he featured the Punchinello character from the Italian tradition of popular theater, a picaresque clown figure with a hooked nose, hunchback, and bloated belly. The character appears repeatedly in Tiepolo's sprawling narrative that rehearses the social mores of late eighteenth-century Venice through genre scenes of daily life, comic misadventures, and pathetic tragedies. In this enigmatic scene, one of nine sheets from I Divertimenti at the CMA, the artist depicted a group of seven figures from the back as they wander aimlessly amid a shower that literally drips down the white paper. Domenico's characteristically tremulous lines and broad, simple washes of brown ink, laid down over an initial sketch in black chalk, capture a fresh and misty atmospheric effect that magnifies the pensive quality of the scene. The artist made this and other drawings from the series as finished works without correlations in other media.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed, bottom right, in brown ink: Dom. Tiepolo f; upper left, in purple crayon: 74; verso, top right, in black chalk: 1; top right, in blue crayon: 7 [written over the "1"]; bottom right, in graphite: [Painting?] small of 4 figures only [upside down]

Provenance
1920
(Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, London, anonymous sale, July 6, 1920, lot 41: "one hundred and two Carnival Scenes, with many figures," sold to P. & D. Colnaghi.)
1920
(P. & D. Colnaghi, London.)
1920-?
Richard Owen [1873-1946], Paris.
?-1937
(Italico Brass [1870-1943], Venice, purchased by The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dec. 1937.)
1937-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Citations
Francis, Henry S. "Six Drawings from the Life of Pulcinella by the Younger Tiepolo." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 4 (1939): 46-49. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 48 www.jstor.org
“Art Throughout America: Cleveland: Tiepolo Drawings from a Famous Series.” The Art News 37, no. 34 (May 20, 1939): 15. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 15
Golden Gate International Exposition, and Annemarie Henle. Master Drawings, An Exhibition of Drawings from American Museums and Private Collections. San Francisco, Calif: Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate International Exposition, 1940. Mentioned: p. 24, cat. no. 99. Reproduced: p. 43 no. 99
Palace of Fine Arts. Golden Gate International Exhibition, Official Catalog. San Francisco: Palace of Fine Arts, 1940. Mentioned: p. 99, cat. no. 498.
Tietze, Hans. European Master Drawings in the United States. New York: J.J. Augustin Publishers, 1947. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 198-199, no. 99
Benesch, Otto. Venetian Drawings of the Eighteenth Century in America. New York: H. Bittner and Company, 1947. Mentioned and Reproduced: pl. 42
Detroit Institute of Arts. Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums: Detroit Institute of Arts, June 1-September 15, 1950. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1950. Reproduced: cat. no. 50
Detroit Institute of Arts, and E. P. Richardson. Venice, 1700-1800: An Exhibition of Venice and the Eighteenth Century. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Art and John Herron Art Museum, 1952. Reproduced: pp. 63-64, no. 82
Morassi, Antonio. “Una Mostra del Settecento Veneziano a Detroit.” Arte Veneta: Rivista Trimestrale di Storia dell’Arte 25 (1953). Mentioned: pp. 53-54. Reproduced: p. 53 fig. 43
Muraro, Michelangelo and Andre Grabar. Treasures of Venice. Geneva: Skira, 1963. Reproduced: p. 211
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 148 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 148 archive.org
Mariuz, Adriano. Giandomenico Tiepolo. Venice: Alfieri, 1971. Reproduced: fig. 36
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 145 archive.org
Vetrocq, Marcia E., Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, and Adelheid M. Gealt. Domenico Tiepolo's Punchinello Drawings. Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum, 1979. Mentioned: p. 17, p. 82; Reproduced: p. 83, no. 23
Vetrocq, Marcia. “The Divertimento per li Regazzi of Domenico Tiepolo.” PhD diss., Stanford University, 1979. Mentioned: pp. 143-144, cat. no. 55. Reproduced: p. 230 no. 55
Fehl, Philipp P. “Farewell to Jokes: The Last Capricci of Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and the Tradition of Irony in Venetian Painting.” Critical Inquiry 5, no. 4 (Summer 1979): 761-791. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 791, fig. 23.
Gealt, Adelheid Medicus.”The courtship, marriage, and other exploits of Punchinello.” Art News 78, no.9 (November 1979): 134-137. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 136-137
Carmean, E.A.. Picasso: The Saltimbanques. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 20, fig. 2
“Museum and Dealer’s Catalogues: Frick Collection” The Print Collector’s Newsletter 11, no. 1 (March-April 1980). Reproduced: p. 19
Ashbery, John. “Punch Lines.” New York Magazine, February 18, 1980. 80. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 80.
Knox, George. "Domenico Tiepolo’s Punchinello Drawings: Satire, or Labor of Love?" In Satire in the 18th Century, edited by J.D. Browning, 124-146. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1983. Mentioned: p. 145 no .74
Borowitz, Helen O. "Three Guitars: Reflections of Italian Comedy in Watteau, Daumier, and Picasso." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 4 (1984): 116-29. Mentioned: p. 122; Reproduced: p. 23 fig. 11 www.jstor.org
Gealt, Adelheid Medicus and James Byam Shaw. Domenico Tiepolo: The Punchinello Drawings. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1986. Mentioned: pp. 21, 160; Reproduced: frontispiece, pl. 68.
Levey, Michael. Giambattista Tiepolo: His Life and Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 134 fig. 124
Mariuz, Adriano. “I disegni di Pulcinella di Giandomenico Tiepolo.” Arte Veneta 40, (1986). Reproduced: p. 273 fig. 11.
Succi, Dario, Madelein Barbin, Annalia Delneri, Arnaldo Momo, and Michelangelo Muraro. I Tiepolo: Virtuosismo e ironia. Turin: Umberto Allemandi & Co., 1988. Mentioned: pp. 303 under no. 10, 322; Reproduced: p. 322.
Pedrocco, Filippo. Disegni di Giandomenico Tiepolo. Milan: Berenice, 1990. Mentioned: p. 90 no. 39; Reproduced: pl. 39
Fehl, Philipp P. Decorum and Wit: The Poetry of Venetian Painting, Essays in the History of The Classical Tradition. Vienna: IRSA, 1992. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 348 fig. 224.
Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robison. The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1994. Mentioned: 329-30, 505, no. 223
Alpers, Svetlana. “Post-Genius Venice.” Art in America (March 1995): 62-69. Reproduced: p. 69.
Sciré, Giovanna Nepi, et al. Splendori del Settecento Veneziano. Milan: Electa, 1995. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 476, no. 204.
Gealt, Adelheid M., George Knox, Giuseppe Bergamini, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Domenico Tiepolo: Master Draftsman. Milan, Italy: Electa, 1996. Reproduced: p. 246, no. 74
Paulin, Roger and Peter Hutchinson. Rilke’s Duino Elegies. London: Duckworth and Ariadne Press, 1996. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 77, fig. 4
Wolk-Simon, Linda. "Domenico Tiepolo: Drawings, Prints, and Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 54, no. 3 (1996): 1-68. Mentioned: pp. 26 under no. 39, 68 no. 107
Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: cat. no. 27, p. 4, pp. 74-75, pp. 286-287; Reproduced: p. 75
Mariuz, Adriano and Giuseppe Pavanello. Tiepolo: Ironia e comico. Venice: Marsilio, 2004. Reproduced: no. 54
Calasso, Roberto. Il Rosa Tiepolo. Milan: Adelphi, 2006. Mentioned: p. 59; Reproduced: p. 62
McHale, Katherine. “Child’s Play? Giandomenico Tiepolo’s Punchinello Drawings and the Fall of Venice.” Master Drawings 50, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 95-114. Mentioned: p. 110; Reproduced: p. 111 fig. 17
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 159
Exhibition history

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1921.

Master Drawings: An Exhibition of Drawings from American Museums and Private Collections. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (organizer).

Six Drawings from the Life of Pulcinella by the Younger Tiepolo. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 30-April 30, 1939).

Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (June 1-September 15, 1950).

Venice 1700-1800: An Exhibition of the Venetian Eighteenth Century. Indianapolis Museum of Art; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (September 30-November 2, 1952).

Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-February 25, 1968).

Domenico Tiepolo's Punchinello Drawings. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (September 2-October 6, 1979).

Domenico Tiepolo's Punchinello Drawings. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (September 2-October 6, 1979); Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford, CA (November 13-December 30, 1979).

Domenico Tiepolo's Punchinello Drawings. Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford, CA (November 13-December 30, 1979).

Domenico Tiepolo's Punchinello Drawings. Frick Collection, New York, NY (January 22-March 30, 1980).

The Tiepolos and Their World. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 6-November 22, 1981).

Venice as City and Theater. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-April 21, 1985).

The Glory of Venice: Art in the 18th Century. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (September 15-December 14, 1994); National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (January 29-April 23, 1995); Galleria dell'Accademia, 30121 Venezia, Italy (May 25-July 30, 1995).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.573