15 October 2021
GIOVANNI BAPTISTA TIEPOLO
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A family has found a Giovanni Baptista Tiepolo drawing they didn’t realize they owned in their attic. The Sitwell family of Weston Hall, U.K. found Tiepolo’s 17th century pen and ink drawing A Large Group of Punchinelli when they were cleaning their attic in preparation for an estate sale.
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Tiepolo, A Large Group of Punchinelli, undated, photo credit: Drewatt’s, Newbury, U.K.
The drawing will be sold at auction in November. Its estimated value is from about $150,000 to $270,000. Tiepolo drawings are extremely uncommon in the marketplace. Similar Tiepolo drawings are in the collections of major museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan, and the Getty.
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Tiepolo, Punchinellos Approaching a Woman (undated) pen and brown ink and brush with brown wash over black chalk, 18,4 x 14 cm, The Getty Museum.
The Tiepolo drawing had been bought in 1936. by the grand-uncle of the current owner.
Art historians believe there are a little over one hundred drawings in the Punchinello series by Tiepolo. Punchinello, a hunchback wearing a mask, with a tall hat and white suit, made his first appearance in the 1600s in the street theatre of Venice. The word Punchinello has its origin in the Italian word for chicken.