Provenance:

Private Collection, Paraguay.

This unpublished Head of the Virgin is a new addition to the rich corpus of paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. While the artist frequently depicted Mary—in Madonna and Child compositions, altarpieces with numerous saints, or in related thematic subjects, such as the Immaculate Conception—single figure depictions of her are extremely rare. The closest comparable work in format and subject is an evocative Madonna recently on the New York art market (Fig. 1).[i] Although of clear devotional intent, the present painting seems as much a portrait of a woman, one lost in her own thoughts, as an evocation of the Virgin Mary.  Enveloped in drapery and with her downcast hooded eyes, our Virgin takes her place among the artist’s suggestive female subjects, both secular and sacred, who seen to dwell in a space of personal remove and spiritual fulfilment.

Dr. William Barcham has confirmed Tiepolo’s authorship of the present painting on the basis of firsthand inspection (February 2024), while allowing the possibility that the drapery might have been completed by a member of the artist’s workshop. He dates the painting to the 1740s, the years of his productive activity in Venice prior to his departure to Würzburg in 1750.

[i] Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 2013, lot 16.