Artist Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, August 30, 1727–March 3, 1804)
Title The Conversion of Paul
Series A New Testament
Date 1786–1790
Medium Brown ink and wash over black chalk on paper
Dimensions Image: 18 1/2 x 14 5/16 in. (47 x 36.4 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/4 x 15 1/16 in. (48.9 x 38.3 cm)
Framed: 27 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (69.2 × 59.1 × 3.8 cm)
Credit Line The Anthony Moravec Collection of Old Master Drawings, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2010.120
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.
While Jesus’ disciples preached and converted, Paul, a Roman who never met Jesus, persecuted the new Christians. Nearing Damascus with a band of soldiers and cavalry, Paul underwent a dramatic conversion, the most famous episode the saint’s life in which God spoke to him and blinded him. Instead of showing God’s presence as a ray of light as described in Acts, Domenico most unusually, drew God arriving within a storm cloud, a figure barely visible in the upper right. Paul’s horse collapses as he’s struck by a bolt of lightning, throwing Paul off sideways, while his soldiers panic and their horses buck and stampede toward the safety of the city walls.
