Scherzi di Fantasia: Magician Pointing Out a Burning Head to Two Youths
Medium
etching
Dimensions
sheet: 39 × 27.1 cm · platemark: 22.6 × 18.5 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Accession Number
1998.113
Tags
male
About this artwork
A scherzo is a musical composition made up of little phrases, with implications of playfulness. Tiepolo's Scherzi are improvised scenes of magicians, philosophers, soldiers, old men in turbans, and shepherds who consult horoscopes, skulls, skeletons, and snakes among altars, ruins, and ancient bas-reliefs. The transitory nature of life, the vanity of human pursuits, and direct confrontation with death, are the recurring themes. The eerie mood of the prints reflect the preoccupation of 18th-centu...