Enfilade

Opening this fall at The Morgan:

Spirit and Invention: Drawings by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 27 October 2023 — 28 January 2024

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Three Angels in Flight, 1754, pen and brown ink, with brown wash on paper, 26 × 20 cm (New York: The Morgan Library & Museum, IV, 95a).

The Morgan is home to one of the world’s largest and most important collections of drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770) and his eldest son Domenico (1727–1804), with more than 300 representative examples of their lively invention and masterful techniques. Combining highlights from the Morgan’s collection with carefully selected loans, this exhibition will provide a comprehensive look at the the Tiepolos’ work as draftsmen, focusing on the role of drawing in their creative process and the distinct physical and stylistic properties of their graphic work.

At the core of the collection and exhibition are substantial groups of Giambattista’s drawings that relate to major ceiling fresco projects of the 1740s and 1750s. A fresh look at the style, function, and material properties of these working drawings has yielded new insights into their purposes. Most significantly, the exhibition presents for the first time extremely rare pen studies for Tiepolo’s magnum opus, the ceiling fresco above the staircase of the Würzburg Residenz of 1752, and a group of bold sketches newly connected with his ceiling fresco of 1754 at the Venetian church of Santa Maria della Pietà. Other sections of the exhibition highlight the introduction of Domenico to the family workshop, the exchanges between father and son, and the great series drawings by both: Giambattista’s fantastic heads and figures seen di sotto in su, and Domenico’s drawings of animals, biblical scenes, and contemporary life. The exhibition will end with a wall including striking examples from Domenico’s late Punchinello series.

r e l a t e d  p r o g r a m m i n g

Friday, 27 October 2023, 6.00pm
Lecture by John Marciari (Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Drawings and Prints), A Magical Performance: Drawings by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo

Thursday, 16 November 2023, 7.30pm
Concert — I Gemelli, A Room of Mirrors: Music by d’India, Marini, Frescobaldi, Calestani, and Gregori | Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, director and tenor; Zachary Wilder, tenor
Since 1980, the Boston Early Music Festival has been at the forefront for excellence in the field of Early Music throughout North America; BEMF began co-presenting concerts and opera productions at the Morgan in 2006.

Friday, 15 December 2023, 5.30pm
Gallery Talk by John Marciari (Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Drawings and Prints)

Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, Piazza San Giacomo di Rialto, 1760–69
(London: The Courtauld)

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Opening in October at The Courtauld:

La Serenissima: Drawing in 18th-Century Venice 
The Courtauld, London, 14 October 2023 — 11 February 2024

Curated by Marco Mansi with Ketty Gottardo

La Serenissima: Drawing in 18th-Century Venice presents an outstanding group of around twenty Venetian drawings from The Courtauld’s collection. They evoke the energy and creativity of Venice at a time when the city flourished as one of the great cultural capitals of Europe. At the dawn of the 18th century, Venice was a magnet for visitors from across Europe, drawn by its architecture, history, and cosmopolitan atmosphere. Many of the artists featured in this exhibition produced works for an international clientele, who avidly collected images of the city, its inhabitants, and its colourful traditions. Landmarks such as St Mark’s Square and the Grand Canal set the stage for Canaletto’s celebrated views of the city’s lively streets and waterways. Piazzetta’s evocative head studies and Giambattista Tiepolo’s playful caricatures depict an early modern metropolis populated by a myriad of characters of different social backgrounds, while Guardi’s panoramic Feast of Ascension Day records the formal splendour and ceremony of the city known as La Serenissima—the most serene.

The display is curated by Marco Mansi, PhD candidate and Print Room Assistant at the Courtauld, under the supervision of Ketty Gottardo, Curator of Drawings.