Restored from 2002 to 2007 with funding from The Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Richard and Carole Rifkind through the The Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation, Emily Mead, the Boston Chapter of Save Venice Inc., and an anonymous donor.

Giambattista Tiepolo was Venice’s most important painter in the eighteenth century, as well as a prolific draftsman. In 1885 the Correr Museum received an album of Tiepolo drawings through the bequest of Lorenzo Gatteri, a painter from Trieste. The album originally contained approximately ninety sheets, but was ultimately used as a scrapbook to house some 225 supplementary drawings. The collection includes over 300 drawings by both Giambattista and his son Giandomenico. They are mostly preparatory studies of details for paintings, rendered in chalk and pen and ink; only occasionally does a full figure appear.

The close working relationship of Giambattista, Giandomenico, and other studio assistants often makes it difficult to distinguish which among them was responsible for each drawing. When specific evidence regarding authorship is lacking, the distinction between the hands of father and son is often based exclusively on stylistic analysis, thus leaving ample margin for interpretation.

The drawings were restored by conservator Karmen Corak Rinesi, with the guidance of project director Attilia Dorigato of the Correr Museum.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770) and Giandomenico Tiepolo (1727–1804)
Drawings from the Gatteri Collection
1748–1781, pen and ink, wash, and chalk on paper

Museo Correr: Homepage
Museo Correr: Tiepolo Drawings (Past Exhibition)

Attilia Dorigato, “Save Venice’s Conservation of Tiepolo Drawings in the Correr Museum” (2004)

Johanna Fassl, “The Poetics of the Line: Giambattista Tiepolo’s Calligraphy Beyond Representation” (2004)

Knox, George. Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo: A Study and Catalogue Raisonné of the Chalk Drawings. Oxford: Clarendon Press/New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.

Whistler, Catherine. Venice & Drawing 1500-1800: Theory, Practice and Collecting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.