(Venice 1727–1804)
A Philosopher,
oil on canvas, 78.3 x 62 cm, unframed

Inscribed on the reverse of the canvas:
Gemalt von Joh Baptisto Tiepolo 1750./
für Baron v. Würzburg Hofmarschall/
beim Fürstbischof Schönborn in/
Würzburg/
Baron Ernst v. Pöllnitz aus Bregenz/
seiner Enkelin Mary
Douglass/
als Hochzeitsgeschenk übergeben/
23 Mai 1894.

Provenance:
painted in 1750 for Johann Veit Freiherr von Würtzburg (1674–1756), Würzburg;
Collection Baron Ernst von Pöllnitz (1813–1900), Bregenz;
wedding gift to his granddaughter Mary Fairbairn (1871–1903) née Douglas(s), daughter of John Sholto Douglas(s), 15th Lord of Tilquillie and Wanda Freiin von Pöllnitz on 23 May 1894;
Private collection, Scotland;
sale, Thomson Roddick, Edinburgh, 20 November 2014, lot 152 (as Italian School, 17th Century, circle of Giovanni Battista Langetti);
where purchased by the present owner

The present painting has been traditionally attributed to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770). This attribution to Giovanni Battista has been independently confirmed by scholars including Mauro Lucco and Vilmos Tátrai, after inspection of the painting in the original. Ugo Ruggeri has also independently confirmed the attribution to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo on the basis of a photograph (written communication). Other scholars have suggested alternative attributions to both Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804) and Lorenzo Tiepolo (1736–1776) for the present painting.

An inscription on the reserve of the present lined canvas, dated 1894, gives the present painting to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and implies that it was executed in Würzburg during Giovanni Battista’s stay in the German city between 1750 and 1753. According to this inscription, the present Philosopher was commissioned by ‘Baron von Würzburg’, identified as Johann veit Freiherr von Würtzburg (1674–1756), canon of St. Killian cathedral, who was at the service of several Prince-Bishops of Würzburg and, among them, Karl Philipp von Greiffenklau, Prince-Bishop between 1749 and 1754, who commissioned the Tiepolo’s frescos at the Residenz of the city.

Giovanni BattistaTiepolo had been commissioned to fresco the ceiling and walls of the Kaisersaal of the Residenz at Würzburg, designed by Balthasar Neumann, for the recently installed Prince-Bishop, Karl Philipp von Greiffenklau, and he arrived in Würzburg with his assistants, his sons, in December 1750. After creating preparatory studies work he started to work on the fresco decorations at the end of April 1751.

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo was Giovanni Battista’s eldest son and he entered his father’s studio in the early 1740s, where he learnt his art by copying his father’s drawings and etchings. From 1750 to 1770 he was both his father’s assistant and associate as well as an independent artist. From 1750 to 1753 Giovanni Domenico collaborated with him on the preparation and execution of the frescos in the Würzburg Residenz, but Giovanni Domenico was also producing a large number of his own works.

Lorenzo Tiepolo arrived with his father and brother in Würzburg in 1750, aged 14, here he worked alongside them on the decorative fresco cycle and a number of drawings have been attributed to him from these apprentice years (now in the Martin von Wagner Museum, Würzburg). In 1753 the family returned to Venice.

Lorenzo is primarily known for his pastel portraits and one has been identified as a portrait of his mother, Cecilia Guardi in the Museo Correr, Venice, and bears the inscription Lorenzo Tiepolo figlio fecit 1757. The unfinished portrait of the Tiepolo Family (British Rail Pension Fund, on loan to the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster) has been associated with this picture and attributed to Lorenzo, though some scholars give it to Giovanni Domenico.

As Beverly Brown has pointed out, to whom we are grateful, the present painting relates to a series of “Philosopher’s Heads” that may have been begun as early as the 1740s in Tiepolo’s shop.  A number of these (but not the painting under question) were reproduced in Giandomenico’s etchings in the Raccolta di Teste. The late George Knox tried to divide the works into groups, giving some to Giambattista, some to Domenico and others to Lorenzo Tiepolo. He saw them as series based on their similar dimensions and compositions (see G. Knox, Domenico Tiepolo: Raccolta di Teste 1770–1970, Milan 1970 and G. Knox, Philosopher Portraits’ by Giambattista, Domenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo in: The Burlington Magazine, 117, March 1975, pp. 147-55). It should be noted that the present painting is slightly larger than all of the other paintings identified by Knox.

Ugo Ruggeri (written communication) compares the present painting to several “Teste” painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, as the Head of an old man, formerly with Wildenstein in New York and now in private collection (see M. Gemin, F. Pedrocco, Giambattista Tiepolo. I dipinti, Venice 1993, n. 310), the Head of an old man with book (Narodni Galerie, Prague) and the Head of a Philosopher in the San Diego Museum of Art (see A. Pallucchini, L’opera completa di Giambattista Tiepolo, Milan 1968, nn. 224, 227). Moreover, the scholar finds close similarities between the present Philosopher and the kneeling King in the foreground in the Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Adoration of the Kings, signed and written 1753, now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (see A. Pallucchini, ibid., n. 202).

Technical analysis:
The work is lined and on the second canvas (lining) there is an inscription. Original pigments of the surface layer, detected by Reflectance Spectrometry (vis--RS), include lead white, vermillion in the flesh tones, iron oxides (i.e. ochre and earth) in the yellow-brown cloak and added also to the white headwear. The greenish--grey background is a mixture of green, brown (earths and ochre) and black particles, as microscopy (200x) shows. Some traces of underdrawing can be seen along some borders. So, as far as it can be ascertained through the performed analyses, it can be affirmed - also on the base of the technical literature - that the technique and materials are completely coherent with the period and with the practice of Tiepolo and his workshop.

We are grateful to Gianluca Poldi for the technical analysis of the present painting.