Lot 1140 Dα

Giovanni Domenico was the eldest son of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and apprenticed in his father's workshop like his younger brother Lorenzo. A commission to create 14 works on canvas for the aisles of the Church of San Paolo in Venice provided Giovanni Domenico with his debut as an independent painter in 1747. However, Giovanni continued to assist his father occasionally, such as for the decoration of the Würzburg residence 1751/52. He painted the overdoors with scenes from the lives of Roman emperors. Giovanni also cooperated with his father once more for the painting of the Villa Valmara in Vicenza, another highly significant commission. Following his father's death in Madrid, Giovanni returned to Venice in late 1770, where he continued to paint mainly religious subjects for the next 30 years. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo is also well-known for his superb drawings and engravings.
George Knox compares the present work to several similar small scale paintings by Giovanni Domenico kept in Budapest, New York and the Museo Civico in Padua. The shapely and expressive depiction of the veil also displays clear stylistic parallels to that of the Virgin in Domenico's large format “Adoration of the Magi” (1753) in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.