Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

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Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
1682-1754
Young Woman with Tambourine
Black and white chalk with smudging, on blue paper, altered to gray-brown.
17 x 13 1/2 inches (432 x 343 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
IV, 90
Notes: 

Probably "Hearing" in a series of figures representing the five senses; see IV, 89 and IV, 91.
Piazzetta created many finished drawings of heads and half-length figures in black and white chalk on blue paper. Widely imitated by the artist's numerous pupils, such sheets evidently were made for sale to collectors rather than as studies for paintings. This drawing, an allegory pf the sense of hearing, belonged to a series depicting the five senses, along with Portrait of a Young Woman in Profile (inv. no. IV 91 -- representing touch) and the Portrait of a Girl with a Pear (inv. no. IV, 89 -- representing taste). --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"

Provenance: 
Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.
Associated names: 

Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, IV, 90, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Jacob Bean. Drawings from New York collections. III: The eighteenth century in Italy. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1971, no. 43, repr.

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