One of a series of 108 drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo from an album bearing the title, "TIEPOLO DESSINS ORIGINAUX", inscribed by Edward Cheney, "E.C. Venice 1852 May 31 / bought from the Conte Corniani Algarotti".
On the verso is a copy by an unknown hand of Annibale Carracci's Polyphemus from the Farnese Ceiling; the copy is in reverse and is presumably after a reproductive engraving rather than the fresco original.
Throughout his career, Giambattista Tiepolo continued to use the medium of drawing to explore alternative solutions to the composition of groups of allegorical figures seen from below. This drawing depicts Victory (with a helmet at her feet and a pomegranate in her right hand) accompanied by Fame (holding a trumpet). The loose, scratchy pen work and free application of wash are typical of the artist's drawings of the late 1750s. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Watermark: letters "AFS".
Algarotti, Francesco, conte, 1712-1764, former owner.
Algarotti, Bonomo, 1706-1776, former owner.
Algarotti-Corniani, Maria, former owner.
Corniani, Bernardino conte, former owner.
Cheney, Edward, 1803-1884, former owner.
Cure, Alfred Capel, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, IV, 114.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Drawings from New York Collections III, The 18th Century in Italy, 1971, pp. 62-63, no. 142, repr.