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Visit to a nunnery

Maker

Circle of
(artist)
1696-1770

1700-1799

Title

Visit to a nunnery

Date of Production

1710-1770

Medium

black chalk, pen and brown and black ink, brown wash on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 28.7 cm
Width: 20.6 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3304

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Monastic & religious life

Label Text

This elaborately finished drawing depicts a Venetian nunnery, the architecture of which is constructed following the rules of linear perspective. The illusion of depth originates from a vanishing point resting in the city beyond the interior; diagonal lines drawn from the vanishing point create the perspectival grids which are reinforced by the rectilinear motifs of the tiled floor, barred windows, and coffered ceiling.

Provenance

Eduard Sack, Hamburg (1857-1913), L.903a; Heinrich Eisemann (Frankfurt am Main and London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Special Display - The Grid, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 26/01/2012-28/05/2012

Eighteenth-century Venice, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 03/01/1951-18/04/1951

Literature

Sack, Eduard, Giambattista und Domenico Tiepolo: ihr leben und ihre werke: ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte de achtzehnten jahrhunderts, Hamburg 1910
no. 254, p. 133

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: lower centre: small circle.

Inscription: Recto: upper left edge, brown ink: “i4i” [as in “141”, imitating numbering as seen on D.1952.RW.1836?]; lower right corner, brown ink: “Tiepolo.”. Verso: lower centre edge, graphite, second line cut off: “G.B. Tiepolo / # […] //”. Mount (removed, in box of mounts from P&D), Recto (within cartouche): lower centre, pen and brown ink: “J.B. TIEPOLO”; lower left, graphite: “ST 1219”; lower right, graphite: “254 / 133 //” [the catalogue and page numbers on which this appears in Eduard Sack's catalogue of Tiepolos]. Mount (removed, in box of mounts from P&D), Verso: lower right, graphite: “ST 1219 / SACK 254 / p. 133 //”.

Collector's mark: Recto: lower left corner, blindstamped: Eduard Sack (L.903a). Verso: lower left corner, stamped in black ink: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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