{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O840664"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O840664/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FA5210/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FA5210/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011FA5210","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O840664/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O840664","accessionNumber":"E.1279-1907","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2011FA5210"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"L","shelf":"7","box":"B"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1696-1770","earliest":"1696-01-01","latest":"1770-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"22","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"17.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"measured to plate mark","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Historical Significance: Giambattista Tiepolo is considered the most important painter of eighteenth-century Italy. He was the last great representative of the grand tradition in Italian art. Especially gifted as a draughtsman and fresco painter, he painted cycles for distinguished patrons all over Europe.  He had a talent for presenting narrative and devotional subject-matter with great dramatic force. At the same time, his art shows allegiance both to the antiquity and to the Venetian tradition.\r\n\r\nGiambattista Tiepolo was born as a son of a merchant, although the surname belonged to one of the most distinguished patrician families in Venice. He studied painting in the workshop of Gregorio Lazzarini, who equipped Tiepolo with a strong knowledge of the Venetian tradition, especially the works of Tintoretto. As a young independent artist, Tiepolo received a number of church commissions and took part in a prestigious project of decorating the pilasters of St Stae with 12 Apostles, each one painted by a different Venetian artist (1722-23). His Martyrdom of St Bartholomew is said to be the best painting in the series.\r\n\r\nTiepolo’s success at home brought him many important commissions outside Venice. In 1725-6 he decorated the patriarchal palace in Udine. Tiepolo worked on this project with Girolamo Mengozzi-Colonna (c. 1688-1766), a specialist who painted architectural decoration frames for him for the next 20 years. Stylistically, the paintings at Udine are a continuation of the Venetian revival of the style of Veronese, which had been initiated earlier by Sebastiano Ricci.\r\n\r\nIn the 1730s Tiepolo achieved a reputation which allowed him to work for a  number of different patrons. A representative of the royal court of Sweden tried to persuade Tiepolo to decorate the palace in Stockholm, although he could not provide satisfactory renumeration. One of the most notable achievements at the time was the decoration of Santa Maria del Rosario, the church of the Gesuati in Venice (1739). It was his first great ecclesiastical fresco style. He painted three major scenes from the life of St Dominic as well as 24 smaller ones throughout the church interior. Among the secular projects, a notable one was the decoration of Palazzo Clerici in Milan, with the heroic but witty ceiling fresco of the Chariot of the Sun (1740, in situ).\r\n\r\nIn the period 1750-3 Tiepolo decorated the Kaisersall of the Residenz in Wurzburg for the newly installed Prince-Bishop, Karl Phillip von Greiffenklau. The painter was provided with a detailed programme, glorifying the bishop and his imperial patron, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The frescoes are considered to be Tiepolo’s greates acheievement. The Prince-Bishop decided to keep Tiepolo in Wurzburg to esco the ceiling of the Trpeenhaus (stairwell) with personified depictions of the four continents. \r\n\r\nAfter his return to Venice, Tiepolo became the president of the Venetian Academy in 1756. His late period is often characterised as one of reusing old ideas and maintaining the already established reputation. In 1762 moved abroad again to work for Charles III of Spain, where he painted three ceiling frescoes for the Palacio Real. Desiring to remain in Spain, Tiepolo sought the commision for executing seven altarpieces for the Francsiscan church of St Pascual in Aranjuez. Only four of those survive intact today (Madrid: Prado and Palacio Real), as they were taken down shortly after Tiepolo’s death in 1770.\r\n\r\n‘Two Magicians and Two Children’\r\nThis print belongs to a series known as Scherzi di fantasia, which appeared in two states and represent a later development in Tiepolo’s printmaking. The series consists of 24 scenes, which are enigmatic in meaning. The sculpturally rendered figures on the backdrop of architectural ruins have been connected to etchings of Salvator Rosa and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. However, necromancy and clairvoyance have also been suggested as possible themes. The dating of the Scherzi is highly problematic, as some single sheets appeared during the artist’s lifetime, but they did not appear as a collection until after Tiepolo’s death. Scholars also disagree as to whether they were produced contemporaneously with the Capricci.\r\n\r\nThis sheet, number 14 in the series, represents a group of figures arranged in an elegant traingle. The stone obelisk  and forest at the back give an air of mystery. The presence of sheep suggests that one of the figures must be a shepheard. The elder figure is holding a rod of Asclepius, an ancient symbol associated with astrology, medicine and healing. This sheet comes from the first of the two states of the Scherzi. The other series has been numbered on the top right. The print is signed Tiepolo at the bottom right. A preparatory drawing for this print has been discovered in the V&A collection by Reynolds. It is catalogued under D.1825:2-1885.\r\n\r\nNotes:\r\n\r\nRizzi, A.; <i>The etchings of the Tiepolos</i>, London: Phaidon 1971, no. 17.\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista (1696-1770). Etching. Scherzo no.14, 'The two magicians and two children.'","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.1279-1907"],"accessionNumberNum":"1279","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1907,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-02","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}