A Bearded Man Wearing a Turban

1758–1760

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

60.6 × 50.4 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-135617

This arresting head study is one of several imaginary portraits of bearded men in outlandish costumes, probably intended to be philosophers, painted by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. Such works were part of a broader movement of painted head studies that became widespread among eighteenth-century Venetian artists who were trying to satisfy the refined taste of a growing clientele of collectors, amateurs, and foreign visitors to Venice, who were eager to bring home an example of the renowned Venetian school of painting. Giandomenico's head studies were produced in direct response to a series of "fantasy" portraits by the artist's father and teacher, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, in the second half of the 1740's. As Giambattista's paintings sat in the studio, both his sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo began drawing upon them for inspiration. Giandomenico created etchings after his father's original series, which he went on to publish in 1774 in a volume named "Raccolta di teste". Prior to their formal publication, however, Giandomenico used these etchings as models for a set of his own paintings, to which the present canvas belongs. Since these heads follow the etchings closely, the present pa…