36 GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO Italian, 1696-1770 View of a Villa Pen and brown ink and brown wash 15.3 x 26.1 cm (6 x l0 ¼ in.) Cat. I, no. 49; 85.GA.297 Tiepolo was a gifted landscape draftsman, though his output of such drawings is tiny- compared with the large number of his surviving figure studies (see no. 35). Why Tiepolo drew landscapes is not entirely clear, though they were probably done for their own sake, possibly for his diversion on summer visits to the countryside. The rapid pen work together with the dark, fluid washes evoke the bright sunlight and open spaces of the Veneto, the mostly flat terrain in the environs of Venice, dotted with noble villas, houses, and farms. In this study, the viewer's attention is caught by the stairway and by the fine stonework of the outer wall. The eye follows the two visitors ascending the steps toward the sunlit front of the villa, with its colonnaded portico and pair of round-headed windows giving onto a balcony. The drawing has been dated about 1757-59; it is associated with similar sketches made when Tiepolo was working at the Villa Valmarana, Vicenza (1757), and in Udine (1759). ITALIAN SCHOOL 47