Sketch for a Ceiling (1750s): Art, History and Details

Sketch for a Ceiling (1750s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This small, quickly painted picture is typical of the sketches Tiepolo made as studies for larger compositions. When completed full-scale on a ceiling, works like these give the impression of a massive window, through which one can see angels or mythological beings floating among the clouds. Although we know from the work's shape that it was a study for a ceiling painting, it is not related to any of Tiepolo's finished architectural decorations. Tiepolo used such sketches to explore design problems, experiment with form and color, or give his clients an idea of how a finished project would look. With the help of a large workshop, which included two of his sons, Tiepolo completed a number of painted ceilings and decorative schemes across Europe.

Object facts

• Title: Sketch for a Ceiling
• Date: 1750s
• Creator attribution: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 51.5 x 43 x 6.5 cm (20 1/4 x 16 15/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 41 x 34 cm (16 1/8 x 13 3/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1916.780

Collection credit

Holden Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
• Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917.
• "An Oil Sketch for a Ceiling Decoration by Tiepolo." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 19, no.7 (July 1932): 115-117

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.