Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011197The Woman with a Tambourine
Also known as: The Centaur and the Woman with the Tambourine
About the Artwork
Observed by Punchinello and friends, a centaur is subdued by a maiden’s musical charms. Rendered touchingly vulnerable, the creature lies with its head on the girl’s lap. One of the simplest instruments, the tambourine was typically played by itinerant musicians—nymphs, vagabonds, seducers—and was traditionally considered the quintessential attribute of the outsider, an aspect reinforced in the 20th century by Bob Dylan’s "Mr. Tambourine Man."
Inscriptions
signed, lower right, in brown ink: Dom°. Tiepolo f ; upper left, in brown ink: 69 [6 was changed from a 5 in original ink) ; upper left, in graphite: o
Provenance
6 July 1920: Sotheby's, London, lot 41 with P & D Colnaghi & Co., London Richard Owen, Paris with Richard H. Zinser, New York 1947: Purchased by Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Masks and Masquerades. New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA (organizer) (February 4-March 31, 1961). Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 26, 1968). Domenico Tiepolo's Punchinello Drawings. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (September 2-October 6, 1979); Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford, CA (November 13-December 30, 1979); Frick Collection, New York, NY (January 22-March 30, 1980). The Tiepolos and Their World. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 6-November 22, 1981). Venice as City and Theater. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-April 21, 1985). Lutes, Lovers, and Lyres: Musical Imagery in the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 14-June 11, 1989).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, 1727–1804)
- Date
- 1790s
- Medium
- pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink over graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 35.4 x 47.3 cm (13 15/16 x 18 5/8 in.); Image: 29.7 x 41.7 cm (11 11/16 x 16 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Accession no.
- 1947.12
More by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo in museum collections
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000319
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00001347
Punchinello Chopping Logs, from the series Divertimento per li regazzi (Entertainment for Children)
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo1790/1804 · Drawing
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00002105
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00002115
Open-access museum record · AT-00011197
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