Three Heads

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Artist Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (Italian, June 17, 1762–August 24, 1844)

Title Three Heads

Date Ca. 1800

Medium Brown ink and watercolor over graphite on paper

Dimensions Image: 6 1/8 × 8 1/8 in. (15.6 × 20.6 cm)
Framed: 14 7/8 × 18 5/8 × 1 1/2 in. (37.8 × 47.3 × 3.8 cm)

Credit Line The Anthony Moravec Collection of Old Master Drawings, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 2010.126

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About this Work

Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, a multitalented figure, belongs to the group of Venetian artists active after the death of Domenico Tiepolo. In this drawing, the central figure, a man dressed in Oriental garb, is the only one wearing a colored costume. He is flanked by two other men who represent different ages and eras. The costume of the elderly man on the left looks more antique, conflating the man’s age with the notion of antiquity. The central figure would therefore represent the present while the young man, who also wears turban-like headgear, represents the future.

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"Three Heads | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2010.126