AINT JOSEPH AND THE CHRIST CHILD Three fragments remain from the altarpiece, ssit atop a white cloud in a verdant land- revealing the significant changes from the scape before a radiant blue sky. Firs and an sketch. The largest, in the Detroit Institute of encroaching cloud close off the composition on Arts, depicts Joseph with the Christ Child (fig. the right, while mountains appear far in the 13.1). A second fragment, taken from the upper distance at lower left. Instruments of Joseph's reaches of the canvas, was separated into two profession as carpenter, including a saw and a 1 parts in the early 1930s. The left half of this plank of wood, lie prominently in the fore- fragment, depicting a putto carrying a garland of ground, calling attention to Joseph's role as a flowers, now survives in the Prado (fig. 13.2), craftsman and maker. Clad in a dark-buttoned while Antoine Seilern purchased the right half cloak, Joseph holds his attribute, a flowering in 1959—the only instance in the Courtauld staff, upright, while supporting his son with the collection in which a sketch and finished compo- other arm. Seated on a bright yellow cloth, sition can be compared. In addition, a squared Christ leans on a book and turns his shoulder drawing also survives (fig. 13.3), perhaps executed squarely to the picture plane, gazing out sweetly in preparation for a print either lost or never at the beholder. Meanwhile, Saint Joseph looks 2 executed. down on his child with a sense of foreboding, All these works indicate that Tiepolo revised aware of his son's fate, as two putti rush in to the treatment of Saint Joseph with the Christ crown the saint with a garland of white flowers. Child far more radically than any of the other FIGURE 13.1 Giambattista Tiepolo. Fragment of Saint Josep h with the Christ Child, 1767-69. Oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, 44.213. Copyright © Detroit Institute of Arts. SAINT JOSEPH WITH THE CHRIST CHILD 83