Artist Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, August 30, 1727–March 3, 1804)
Title The Healing of the Ten Lepers
Series A New Testament
Date 1786–1790
Medium Brown ink and wash over black chalk on paper
Dimensions Image: 18 3/16 × 14 in. (46.2 × 35.6 cm)
Support: 18 7/8 × 14 3/4 in. (47.9 × 37.5 cm)
Framed: 25 × 20 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (63.5 × 52.1 × 3.8 cm)
Credit Line The Anthony Moravec Collection of Old Master Drawings, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2010.116
About this Work
The son of the famous Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Domenico was also a noted draftsman. His graphic style, more earthbound and rooted in observation than his father’s, bears his distinctive trembling line quality. Domenico worked in serial narratives, including his New Testament cycle, numbering at least 320 sheets. This image is one of twelve drawings from this important series in Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection (Eskenazi Museum of Art 2010.111-.122). By combining narrative elements from a variety of literary sources with details of daily life, Domenico brought new life to these biblical stories.
Only Luke describes a miracle in which Jesus performed a mass healing, namely of ten lepers, whom he cured all at once. Domenico’s interpretation of Luke’s account brings Jesus face to face with the lepers instead of at a distance, as Luke mentions. The drawing’s central drama—in which a woman kneels just in front of Jesus, her head buried in his robe—represents a separate miracle (the curing of the woman with the issue of blood) that took place at a different time, but which Domenico has conflated with the episode of the ten lepers.
