Currently not on view
The Doctor's Visit,
ca. 1791
Constructed like a stage set, this minimal interior is enlivened by striped fabrics and such domestic details as the bed warmer, chamber pot, and enema—the latter brandished by one of the figures on the left. The center of attention is a portly and disheveled middle-aged man whose pulse is being taken by a mincing physician sprouting donkey’s ears, a whimsical detail signifying the artist’s caustic view of the medical profession. This theatrical tableau belongs to a series of highly finished drawings, called Scenes from Contemporary Life, which the Venetian painter Domenico Tiepolo (son of Giambattista) executed toward the end of his life. Made for his private interest and amusement, these gently satirical works portray a cast of characters from all walks of life engaged in social and domestic activities.
Information
ca. 1791
Sotheby's, sale June 30, 1925;
Dan Fellows Platt;
Bequested to Princeton University Art Museum
Quack Doctors Attend a Stout Man in Harlequin Costume
- Drawings by old masters in pencil, chalk and water-colours: 1925 June 30, (London: Sotheby's, 1925)., lot 20
- George Knox, "Drawings by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo at Princeton", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 23, no. 1 (1964): p. 2-28., p. 22, no. 44; p. 16 (illus.)
- Jacob Bean, Italian drawings in the Art Museum, Princeton University; 106 selected examples, (New York: October House, 1966).
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: p. 77, no. 204 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
- Marcia E. Vetrocq, Domenico Tiepolo's Punchinello drawings: September 2-October 6, 1979, Indiana University Art Museum, November 13-December 30, 1979, Stanford University Museum of Art, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Art Museum, 1979)., p. 22-23
- Adelheid M. Gealt and George Knox, Domenico Tiepolo: master draftsman, (Milano: Electa, 1996)., p. 242, no. 58
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George Knox and James Christen Steward, The mask of Venice: masking, theater & identity in the art of Tiepolo & his time, (Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley Art Museum in association with the University of Washington Press, 1996).
, p. 90, cat. no. 40 (illus.) - Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 112 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 38
- Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. xviii, fig. 1
