"In Piazza"
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, ca. 1791
About this artwork
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo's "In Piazza," created around 1791, captures vibrant bustle of an Italian public square in a masterful drawing executed with pen and brown ink, brown wash black chalk. As the son of the renowned Venetian master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Domenico inherited and refined his father's Rococo flair for dynamic compositions and fluid lines. This late work, measuring 14 7/16 x 19 11/16 inches, exemplifies the Tiepolo family's expertise in preparatory sketches that often stood alone as finished artworks, blending precise underdrawing with expressive washes to evoke light, shadow, and movement. The scene teems with everyday life—men, women, and dogs mingling amid architectural grandeur—reflecting Venice's enduring social pulse in the waning years of the Republic. Domenico's technique, with its loose, energetic strokes and subtle tonal modeling, conveys spontaneity and joy, hallmarks of 18th-century Venetian draftsmanship. Such drawings were prized by collectors for their immediacy, bridging the gap between sketch and painting. Housed in the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1975, "In Piazza" offers a window into Domenico's mature style after his time in Spain, preserving the Tiepolo legacy of theatrical, light-filled scenes that celebrate humanity's lively spirit.