Italy, Venice / 1797–1804
A Spring Shower
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs A Spring Shower as drawing (Italy, Venice · 1797–1804).
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, who often depicted multiple Punchinellos (a clown figure) in his drawings, added two in this scene—the figure on the left with a cloak comically draped over his head, and another on the right holding an umbrella.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this drawing as pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over black chalk; framing lines in brown ink over graphite on antique laid paper and credits Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, 1727–1804).
The museum's collection notes: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, an important Venetian fresco painter of the 18th century, is best known today for his highly finished historical drawings that ingeniously incorporate details from daily life. In his series of 104 drawings known as Divertimento per li Regazzi (Entertainment for Children), he featured the Punchinello character from the Italian tradition of popular theater, a picaresque clown figure with a hooked nose, hunched back, and bloated belly. The character appears repeatedly in Tiepolo's sprawling narrative that rehearses the social mores of late 18th-century Venice through genre scenes of daily life, comic misadventures, and
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtA Spring ShowerOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.