About the Artwork
This imposing yet tender representation of Saint Joseph gently cradling the infant Jesus in his arms was the central portion of seven altarpieces commissioned from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo for the church of San Pascual Baylon at the royal palace at Aranjuez, just outside Madrid. The ensemble also included an Immaculate Conception, a stigmatization of Saint Francis, and a Saint Charles Borromeo meditating on the crucifix. One of the most accomplished Italian painters of the eighteenth century, Tiepolo was also one of the most international. Born and trained in Venice, he was much sought after to work in foreign courts, and he spent stretches of time in Würzberg (in northern Bavaria) and Madrid. King Charles III of Spain commissioned this work. Unfortunately, Tiepolo never had the opportunity to see it in situ at San Pascual Baylon: the church was completed seven weeks after his death.
Saint Joseph and the Christ Child
between 1767and 1769
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770
Italian
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 60 5/8 × 43 13/16 inches (154 × 111.3 cm) Framed: 69 × 52 3/4 × 3 1/4 inches (175.3 × 134 × 8.3 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb
44.213
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
1767, commissioned by Charles III, King of Spain;1770, until 1836, Church of San Pascual Baylón [moved ca. 1775 to upper cloister of convent] (Aranjuez, Spain);
Spanish Royal collection (possibly the Prado, Madrid, Spain);
by mid-19th century, possibly a gift to Marqués de Remisa (Madrid, Spain);
by inheritance to his daughter, Concepción de Remisa (Madrid, Spain);
from at least 1910 until at least 1927, Don Lorenzo Moret (Madrid, Spain);
1927, widow of Don Lorenzo Moret;
1931, purchased by Herr Kochertaler (in Madrid, Spain, and probably sent to Berlin, Germany);
June 9, 1932, sold by (Sotheby's, London, England) "property of a gentleman," lot 104;
1932, purchased by Hartmann;
October 1935, (Jacques Seligman, New York, New York, USA);
by 1939, Mme L. K (Geneva, Switzerland);
by 1940, Jacob M. Heimann Gallery (New York, New York, USA);
1944-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
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Cean Bermudez, J.A. Diccionario Histórico de los Más Illustras Professores de las Bellas Artes en España. Madrid, 1880, vol. 5, pp. 45-47.
Stirling-Maxwell, Sir W. Annals of the Artists of Spain. London, 1891-1894, vol. 4, pp. 1391-1392.
Sack, E. Giambattista und Domenico Tiepolo: Ihr Leben und Ihre Werke: Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Hamburg, 1910, pp. 137, 145 and 209, no. 131a, no. 441 (ill.).
Sánchez Cantón, F.J. "Los Tiépolos de Aranjuez." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología 3 (1927): p. 10 (ill.).
Moret, Julián. "Un fragmento y un cuadro de Juan Bautista Tiépolo" Revista Española de Arte de la Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte XII, no. 1 (1934): pp. 47-49 (ill.).
Exhibition of Venetian Paintings and Drawings Held in Aid of Lord Baldwin's Fund for Refugees. Exh. cat., Matthiesen Gallery. London, 1939, cat. 58.
Goering, M. "Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista." Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexicon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, ed. H. Vollmer, vol. 33. Leipzig, 1939, p. 153, col. 1.
Italian Baroque Painting. Exh. cat., Vassar College Art Gallery. Poughkeepsie, 1941, cat. 31.
Italian Baroque Painting: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Exh. cat., California Palace of the Legion of Honor. San Francisco, 1941, p. 27, cat. 110 (ill.).
Valentiner, W.R."A Late Work by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo." Bulletin of the DIA 24, no. 3 (1945): pp. 26-27 (ill.).
Sánchez Cantón, F.J. Museo del Prado: Catalogo de los cuadros. Madrid, 1949, no. 583, p. 633.
Detroit Institute of Arts Masterpieces of Painting and Sculpture. Detroit, 1949, p. 84.
Venice 1700-1800: an exhibition of Venice and the 18th century. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts and John Herron Art Museum. Detroit and Indianapolis, 1952, cat. 73.
Sánchez Cantón, F.J. J.B. Tiepolo en España. Madrid, 1953, pp. 19-20 (fig. 23).
Richardson, E.P. Catalogue Of The Paintings and Sculpture given by Edgar B. Whitcomb and Anna Scripps Whitcomb. Detroit, 1954, p. 101 (ill.).
Morassi, A., G.B. Tiepolo: His Life and Work. London, 1955, pp. 39-40, pl. 62.
"Italian Paintings and Drawings." Collection Count Anton Seilern. Exh. cat., 56 Prince's Gate. London, 1959, p. 164 (fig. 52), cats. 172-175.
Levey, M. Painting in Eighteenth Century Venice, rev. 2nd ed. London, 1959, pp. 202-207.
Gioseffi, D. Canaletto and His Contemporaries. New York, 1960, p. 36.
Richardson, E.P., ed. Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1960, p. 101.
Morassi, A. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G.B. Tiepolo. London, 1962, p. 10 (fig. 196) pp. 20, 22, 35.
Gaya Nuño, Juan Antonio. Pintura Europea Perdida por España de Van Eyck a Tiépolo, Espasa-Calpe S. A. Madrid, 1964, 108 (ill.), cat. 324, p. 93
Richardson, E.P., ed. Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts, 3rd ed. Detroit, 1966, p. 107, (ill.).
Pallucchini, A. L'opera completa di Giambattista Tiepolo. Milan, 1968, p.134-135, cat. 299 & 299f (ill.).
Tiepolo: A Bicentenary Exhibition 1770-1970: Drawings, mainly from American collections by Giambattista Tiepolo and the members of his circle. Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge, 1970, cat. 97.
Giambattista Tiepolo. Exh. cat., Museo Civico or Villa Manin di Passariano. Udine, 1971, p. 155, cat. 75 (ill.).
Fredericksen, B. and F. Zeri. Census of Pre-19th Century Italian Paintings in North American Collection. Cambridge, 1972, p. 196.
Cailleux, Jean. Giambattista Tiepolo 1696-1770, Domenico Tiepolo 1727-1804, Lorenzo Tiepolo 1736-1776, Peintures, Dessins, Pastels. Exh. cat., Galerie Cailleux, Paris, 1974, cat. 18.
L’art européen à la Cour d’Espagne au XVIIIe siècle. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts. Bordeaux, 1979, p. 203, cat. 131.
Knox, George. Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, A Study and Catalogue Raisonné of the Chalk Drawings, 2 vols. Oxford, 1980, pp. vol. I, 41, 73-4, 107, 194, 222, 242, 328; vol. II, 261-263 (ills.).
Whistler, C. Giambattista Tiepolo in Spain: the late religious paintings. Diss., University College Dublin, 1984.
Whistler, C. "G.B. Tiepolo and Charles III: The Church of S. Pascual Baylon at Aranjuez." Apollo 121 (May 1985): pp. 321-337, pp. 323, 325.
Barcham, William L. The Religious Paintings of Giambattista Tiepolo. Piety and Tradition in Eighteenth-century Venice. Oxford, 1989, p. 229.
Gemin, M. and F. Pedrocco. Giambattista Tiepolo, I Dipinti, Opera Completa. Venice, 1993, pp. 494, 497.
Brown, Beverly Louise. Giambattista Tiepolo, Master of the Oil Sketch. Exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1993, pp. 40, 319.
Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. New York & Oxford, 1996, pp. 285, 288 note 13.
Painting in Spain in the Age of Enlightenment: Goya and his contemporaries. Exh. cat., Indianapolis Museum of Art. Indianapolis, 1996, p. 88, cat. 24 (ill.).
Aikema, Bernard and Marguerite Tuijn. Tiepolo in Holland, Works by Giambattista Tiepolo and His Circle in Dutch Collections. Exh. cat., Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Rotterdam, 1996, pp. 127-129.
Adelheid M. Gealt and Geoge Knox, eds. Giandomenico Tiepolo, Maestria e Gioco, Disegni dal mondo. Exh. cat., Castello di Udine and Indiana University Art Museum. Udine and Bloomington, 1996, p. 139, cat. 54.
Giambattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770. Exh. cat., Museo del Settecento Veneziano and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Venice and New York, 1996, pp. 242, 246, 344.
Cinq siècles de dessins, Collections du Musée Jenisch. Exh. cat., Musée Jenisch. Vevey, 1997, p. 92.
Bensi, Paolo. "'Con Grazia Parmigianesca': Note sulla tecnica pittorica della Carità della Cappella Colleoni di Bergamo." Giambattista Tiepolo nel Terzo Centenario della Nascita, Atti di Convegno Internazionale di Studi, ed., Lionello Puppi. Venice, 1998, vol. I, p. 367.
Giambattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770. Musée du Petit Palais. Paris, 1998, p. 234-235, no. 79.
Whistler, C. "Decoro e devozione nelle pale di Giambattista Tiepolo ad Aranjuez." Arte Veneta 52 (1998): pp. 70-85, pp. 76, 79 (fig. 13).
Wilson, Carolyn C. St. Joseph in Italian Renaissance Society and Art. Philadelphia, 2001, p. 224.
Pedrocco, Filippo. Tiepolo, The Complete Paintings, Rizzoli. New York, 2002, pp. 178 (ill.), 308-310 (ill. and cat. 281.6.1), 336.
Bissell, R.W., A. Derstine, and D. Miller. Masters of Italian Baroque Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2005, pp. 9, 188-193, cat. no. 61.
Seydl, J.L. Giambattista Tiepolo: Fifteen Oil Sketches. Los Angeles, 2005, p. 83, (ill.). p. 83 (fig. 13.1).
Derstine, Andria. "The Detroit Institute of Arts and Italian Baroque Painting." In Buying Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings Come to America, ed. Edgar Peters Bowron. University Park, 2017, p. 97.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, between 1767and 1769, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb, 44.213.
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