G iandomenico T iepolo
Venice 1727 - Venice 1804
14. A female faun escaping from Apollo
Pen and brown ink, brown wash
190 x 275 mm
Signed lower right: Dom. Tiepolo f
Provenance:
Venice, private collection; Florence, private collection.
Literature:
J. Cailleux, Centaurs, Fauns, Female Fauns, and Satyrs among the drawings of Domenico Tiepolo, Burlington
Magazine no. 31, June 1974, supplement, p. xxiv, no. 80, reproduced fig. 72.
Exhibited:
Disegni veneti del Settecento della Fondazione Giorgio Cini e delle collezioni venete, Venice, 1963, p.75.
18e Eeuwse Venetiaanse Tekeningen, Groningen, 27 May-4 July 1964, n.104 p. 47 and the same exhibition and
catalogue Rotterdam, 29 July-13 September 1964.
This sheet published by Cailleux 1 is part of a series of approximately 140 drawings depicting Centaurs, Fauns
and Satyrs that James Byam Shaw described “as the most delightful and original of all Domenico’s allegorical and
mythological subjects captured by his imagination” 2 .
In this study a female faun is running away from Apollo while Cupid, with an arrow in his hand, is looking at
her. Giandomenico represents the God of the Arts, with one of his usual symbols, the lyre and with a Christian
symbol, the aureole used here as a sign of divinity.
The composition with Apollo trying chasing a female faun reminds us of the scene with Apollo pursuing the
nymph Daphne.
( GG )