Domenico Tiepolo’s etching, “St Gerolamo Emiliani”, c1750

Domenico Tiepolo (aka Giandomenico Tiepolo; Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo) (1727–1804)

“St Gerolamo Emiliani” (aka “B.P. Hieronymus Æmilianus”), 1740–1760, , linked to (but not a part of) the series of seven etchings that I understand were based on proposed paintings for the Oratorio del Crocifisso (Oratory of the Crucifix) in San Polo, Venice (Rizzi 58–64). Note that Aldo Rizzi (1971) in his catalogue raisonné (“The Etchings of the Tiepolos”) advises that the “style and the icongraphy prove this to be one of the very earliest etchings by Giandomenico [aka Domenico Teopolo] to be connected with the series” (p. 138).

Etching on laid paper trimmed around the image borderline and lower writing edge, backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 13.6 x 8.7 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: “B. P. Hieronymus Æmilianus./ D.Tiepolo Fec.”

State i (of i)

Rizzi 55 (Aldo Rizzi 1971, “The Etchings of the Tiepolos: Complete Edition”, London, Phaidon Press, p. 138, cat. no. 55); Nagler 18; De Vesme 65; Sack 50.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “St Jerome Emiliani kneeling holding a key and sword/ Etching” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1907-0515-84-52).

Interestingly, a copy of this print held by the British Museum is a part of the folio of prints by the Tiepolo family, “Opere Varie”, acquired on behalf of the British Museum by Campbell Dodgson from a London bookseller in 1907 for what was even then the paltry sum of £5 (actually £2 10s). When Dodgson inquired why it was so inexpensive, the bookseller advised him: “Well, Sir, you see it's a bad period” (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1907-0515-84-1). Times change!

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression, trimmed around the image borderline and laid onto a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this very rare etching showing the patron saint of orphans, St Gerolamo Emiliani (1481–1537), who was canonised in 1768 by Clement XIII shortly after this print was executed, for AU$467 (currently US$332.51/EUR312.76/GBP266.26 at the time of posting this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this small but quietly beautiful etching—note how the artist has used stippling to “bathe” the kneeling saint in heavenly light—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold 

An early (?) copy after Tiepolo’s second plate in the series “Flight into Egypt"

Unidentified artist after Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727–180)

Copy after GD Tiepolo’s etching, “Plate 2: The Flight into Egypt”. The date of this impression is unknown, but as the print is on laid paper this suggests the nineteenth century.

Etching on chine-collé (?) on laid paper with significant plate tone and narrow margins.

Size: (sheet) 19.6 x 24 cm; (plate) 18.7 x 23.2 cm

GD Tiepolo’s complete series of prints are illustrated and discussed in Colta Feller Ives’s (1972) “Picturesque Ideas on the Flight into Egypt etched by Gi ovanni Domenico Tiepolo”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

See also DeVesme 1906, 19 (De Vesme, Alexandre, “Le peintre-graveur italien”, Milan, 1906)

Condition: a richly inked impression with narrow margins in excellent condition.

I am selling this amateurish and possibly early copy of Tiepolo’s wonderful etching for AU$139 in total (currently US$106.38/EUR94.77/GBP82.04 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. If you are interested in purchasing this visually arresting etching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This amateurish copy of GD Tiepolo’s famous etching needs to be compared to the original to see the awkwardness of the drawing. I should say that the drawing skills exhibited in this copy are truly dreadful—and I guess that I have—but, as I am trying to sell the print, I need to point out one of the more interesting features: how the artist has understood the trumpet blowing action of the advancing airborne figure. Here the copyist has substituted the finely contoured strokes used by Tiepolo to render this trumpet blower’s puffed-out cheeks with the implied meaning of an inscribed circle. This is a clever idea.

Regarding this image, Ives (1972) in her compendium of Tiepolo’s etchings for the series, offers the following insights:

“With fanfare, the allegorical figure Fame escorts a symbolic representation of Prince-Bishop Carl Philipp von Grieffenklau. Two putti carry the bishop's miter and stole, while an angel bears the Grieffenklau coat of arms above the fortress of Marienberg, the palace of Würzburg prince-bishops from 1250 until 1750, when the new Residenz was completed and decorated by the Tiepolos.”