About the Artwork
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was considered the preeminent Italian painter of the eighteenth century because of his brilliant palette of orange, lavender, and bright apple greens and his astonishing ability to work across a huge range of formats, from small-scale cabinet paintings to vast decorative frescos. This painting depicts a woman tuning a mandolin. Her bared breast, bejeweled hair, and languid gaze suggest that she is a courtesan, while her activity implies that she is preparing to play a love song. It is linked to two other works by Tiepolo showing half-length figures of women in masquerade attire, possibly forming a pictorial series. One of these is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the other in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Trained in Venice, Tiepolo attained a reputation for brilliant decorative ensembles and was sought after by foreign courts; some of his greatest achievements are now in Germany and Spain.
Woman with a Mandolin
ca. between 1755 and 1760
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770
Italian
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 36 7/8 × 29 1/2 inches (93.7 × 75 cm) Framed: 45 5/8 × 39 5/8 × 4 inches (115.9 × 100.6 × 10.2 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Gift of Anne and Henry Ford II
57.180
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
1814, transported by (Niccolò Leonelli, Venice, Italy) to (St. Petersburg, Russia);May 14-23, 1817, Leonilli sale (St. Petersburg, Russia).
probably Prince Nicolai Yousoupov [d. 1831] (St. Petersburg, Russia).
by 1834 or 1839, Boris Yousoupov [d. 1849] (St. Petersburg, Russia).
Biron (Paris, France);
until 1937, Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duke de Dino (Paris, France);
until 1957, by descent to Duchess de Talleyrand-Périgord [also known as Duchess de Dino] (Paris, France and New York, New York, USA);
1957, (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, New York, USA);
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford II;
1957-present, gift to 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.
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Catalogue de la collection de tableaux de feu M. Leonelli. 1817, no. 182.
Richardson, E.P. "An Unrecorded Painting by Tiepolo." Bulletin of the DIA 37, no. 4 (1957-58): pp. 80-81 (cover ill.).
Morassi, A. "Giambattista Tiepolo’s ‘Girl with a Lute’, and the Clarification of Some Points in the Work of Domenico Tiepolo." Art Quarterly 21, no. 2 (Summer 1958): pp. 177-186 [ca. 1753-57.]
Richardson, E.P., ed. Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1960, p. 100.
Morassi, A. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G.B. Tiepolo. London, 1962, p. 10 (fig. 414).
Precerutti Garberi, M. "Segnalazioni Tiepoleschi." Commentari, no. 3 (1964): pp. 246-261, p. 251 (fig. 8).
Pignatti, T. I disegni veneziani del settecento. Rome, 1966, p. 211.
Pallucchini, A. L'opera completa di Giambattista Tiepolo. Milan, 1968, pp. 126-127, no. 251, pl. 50 and on cover.
Cummings, F. and C. Elam, eds. Detroit Institute of Arts Illustrated Handbook. Detroit, 1971, p 115 (ill.).
Pallucchini. "Tiepolo a Passariano." Arte Veneta 25 (1971): pp. 334-338, p. 336.
Mostra del Tiepolo. Exh. cat., Museo Civico. Udine, 1971, p. 140, cat. 74.
Schloss, E. "Tiepolo at the Doge’s Palace." International Herald Tribune, October 1, 1971, p. 8.
Fredericksen, B. and F. Zeri. Census of Pre-19th Century Italian Paintings in North American Collection. Cambridge, MA, 1972, p. 196. [cited as "Girl with a Lute."]
Nakayama, K. "Nu feminin dans l'art." Vie et Moeur. Tokyo, 1979, vol. 9, p. 110, pl. 56.
Cummings, F., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 148, cat. 121 (ill.).
Chiarini, M. Le portrait en Italie au siècle de Tiepolo. Exh. cat. Paris, 1982, p. 101.
In Quest of Excellence: Civic Pride, Patronage, Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., Center for the Fine Arts. Miami, 1984, pp. 91-2, cat. 81, (ill.).
Levey, M. Giambattista Tiepolo: His Life and Art. New Haven, 1986, p. 246.
Pallucchini, A. and J. Le Foll, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Tiepolo, Paris, 1990, p. 128, no. 259, pl. 50
Barcham, William L. Giambattista Tiepolo. London, 1992, p. 118.
Gemin, M. and F. Pedrocco. Giambattista Tiepolo: I dipinti, opera completa. Venice, 1993, p. 479, no. 504.
Henshaw, J.P. A Visitor’s Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 193, (ill.). [cited as "Girl with a Mandolin."]
Pallucchini, R. La Pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento. I. Milan 1995, pp. 458, 465 (fig. 729).
De Grazia, D. and E. Garberson. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C. 1996, pp. 290, 293, no.18. [ as by Giambattista.]
Knox, G. "Tiepolo in Venice." Apollo 144 (November 1996): pp. 53-54.
Giambattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770. Exh. cat., Museo del Settecento veneziano (Ca' Rezzonico) and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Venice and New York, 1996, pp. 27; 256-57, 261 (note 21), 268-270, 272, cat. 45a (ills.).
Pilo, G. La Giovinezza di Giambattista Tiepolo. Venice, 1997, p. 37 (ill.).
Bensi, P. "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 StudiCenive, 1998, vol. I, p. 366
Eschenfelder, C. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Cologne, 1998, p. 113.
Giambattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770. Exh. cat., Petit Palais. Paris, 1998, pp. 214-16, cat. 70, (ill.).
Fredericksen, B. "Niccolò Leonelli and the export of Tiepolo sketches to Russia." Burlington Magazine (October 2002): pp. 621-625 (ill.).
Pedrocco, F. Tiepolo: The Complete Paintings. New York, 2002, pp. 152, 159 (ill.), 162, 189 (notes 50, 51), 304 (ill. and cat. 273), 336.
Bandes, Susan J. Pursuits and Pleasures: Baroque Paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Dennos Museum Center, Kalamazoo Art Museum, Kresge Art Museum, Muskegon Museum of Art. Battle Creek, 2003, (cover ill.), pp. 4, 9-10, 42, 43 (ill.).
Bissell, R.W., A. Derstine, and D. Miller. Masters of Italian Baroque Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2005, pp. 10, 184-187, cat. no. 60.
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. 98.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Woman with a Mandolin, ca. between 1755 and 1760, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Anne and Henry Ford II, 57.180.
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