GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO (1696-1770)

Pen and brown ink and gray wash over black chalk

28.20 cm wide 42.80 cm high

11.10 inches wide 16.85 inches high

Sale, London, Christie's, 5 July 1983, lot 128;
Private Collection

Charged with conspiracy by Emperor Nero, Seneca chose to commit suicide rather than face the humiliation of execution. This narrative of the Roman Empire was a popular subject in Italy in the 1700s and reflected the revival of interest in Stoicism. Stoic philosophers, like Seneca, argued for the control of the emotions and his suicide embodied this repression of feeling. Having slit his own wrists and taken poison, Seneca slips into unconsciousness and is helped into a warm bath of water by some well wishing men to hasten his death.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s dashing, fluid manner of drawing has its origins in the work of Luca Giordano, whose influence is readily apparent in this early drawing which dates from the 1720s. Soon after this, Tiepolo began to seek inspiration from the works of artists from his native Venice, particularly Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, but here the theatrical poses, intense characterisation and narrative clarity, as well as the use of broad, relatively evenly applied washes, all indicate the importance of the earlier influence of Giordano.

FOR SALE