1800
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
A Spring Shower is a 1800 by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a crowd of little clowns in white costumes and black hats scurrying through a downpour, umbrellas bobbing. These clowns are actually Punchinellos—stock characters from Italian street theater. The artist drew 104 of them, turning everyday Venetian life into a playful parade. Look close: one clown shares an umbrella with a dog. If you like this lighthearted scene, look up *subject: italy, venice* for more drawings of daily life in the city.
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, an important Venetian fresco painter of the 18th century, is best known today for his highly finished historical drawings that ingeniously incorporate details from daily life. In his series of 104 drawings known as Divertimento per li Regazzi (Entertainment for Children), he featured the Punchinello character from the Italian tradition of popular theater, a picaresque clown figure with a hooked nose, hunched back, and bloated belly. The character appears repeatedly in Tiepolo's sprawling narrative that rehearses the social mores of late 18th-century Venice through…
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, who often depicted multiple Punchinellos (a clown figure) in his drawings, added two in this scene—the figure on the left with a cloak comically draped over his head, and another on the right holding an umbrella.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (August 30, 1727 – March 3, 1804) was an Italian painter and printmaker in etching. He was the son of artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo.
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