Lion, Lioness and Cubs

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo · n.d.

Medium

Pen and brown ink, and brush and brown wash, with traces of brown gouache, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper, laid down on blue wove paper, laid down on brown wove paper

Original size

18.3 × 27.4 cm (7 1/4 × 10 13/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

This tender study of a lion family — the powerful male resting alongside his mate and cubs — radiates a quiet domesticity that seems at odds with its wild subjects, yet feels entirely natural in Tiepolo's hands. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo worked in the long shadow of his father Giambattista, yet carved out a distinct identity as a draughtsman of enormous vitality. Where his father commanded grand mythological and religious canvases, Domenico found his voice in more intimate subjects — genre scenes, animal studies, and the rhythms of everyday life rendered with fluid, expressive line. The combination of pen, brown wash, and black chalk he employs here builds form through layered tone rather than rigid outline, giving the lions a palpable weight and warmth that belies the lightness of the medium. Domenico is perhaps best known for his extraordinary late-life series of Punchinello drawings — over a hundred sheets depicting the commedia dell'arte figure — but his animal subjects reveal the same keen eye for character and unhurried observation. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Domenico's masterful tonal range into the richer depth of oil paint, preserving the intimacy and quiet authority of the original while bringing its warm ochres and earthy shadows to life on canvas.