An angel addressing the three Magi

At first glance this beautiful drawing could be interpreted as a study of a secular subject, if it were not for the presence of the angel behind the three men. Tiepolo frequently experimented with the creation of draped men in oriental costumes wearing elaborate headdresses, revealing an almost inexhaustible inventiveness in the creation of new details. Many drawings of individual figures in oriental guise, like the Magi in this drawing, are in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (G. Knox, Catalogue of Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, pp. 22-26). These exotic characters also populate Giovanni Battista’s series of etchings entitled Scherzi di fantasia, published in the 1750s (A. Rizzi, The Etchings of the Tiepolos, London, 1971, nos. 4-26, ill.). The present sheet cannot be connected to any of Tiepolo’s painted or printed works, and given its large format and its assured and appealing execution it was most likely conceived as an independent work of art.