Restored in 2025 with funding from Annasue McCleave Wilson and John H. Wilson III, and the Mary Ryan and John H Wilson II Fund at the North Texas Community Foundation.

In the final years of his life, Giambattista Tiepolo’s son, Giandomenico, dedicated himself to creating the Divertimento per li regazzi, a series of 104 drawings now celebrated as his masterpiece and a pinnacle of 18th-century European art. Designed purely for his personal enjoyment, these drawings feature the grotesque figure Punchinello. Through this character, Giandomenico skillfully parodies the mundanities of daily life, revealing its inherent comic absurdities.

Giandomenico’s drawings surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1920, their origins undocumented. The following year, they were exhibited at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris before being dispersed across various museums, predominantly in the United States. Over time, individual or small groups of drawings have been periodically published. Notably, in 1979 and 1986, the entire series was published collectively for the first time, though presented in a non-original, arbitrary order. Since then, the authentic sequence of the 104 drawings has not been restored.

Recently, two photo albums from the 1920s and 1930s have come to light from the Morassi Collection at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. These albums feature high-quality photographic reproductions of Giandomenico’s 104 drawings and are significant because they unveil a previously unknown chapter in the collection history of these works. Notes on ownership reveal that the photographs originally belonged to Italico Brass (1870-1943), a distinguished Venetian painter and art collector. Brass donated these albums to Professor Antonio Morassi between 1939 and 1940. A handwritten note by Brass further suggests that the drawings originated from the “former Algarotti collection” in Venice. Crucially, these photographs enable the reconstruction of the original sequence of the drawings, resolving a puzzle that has remained unsolved until now. The albums also provide invaluable context for previously unavailable drawings and assist in piecing together sheets that were cut over time, often to isolate individual figures for market purposes.

The exterior surface of the two photo albums exhibited extensive wear, surface abrasion, and general degradation consistent with prolonged handling and use. The spines were in particularly poor condition, largely due to the inferior quality of the leather, which had become brittle and weakened over time: one album had lost its spine entirely, while the other retained only a severely deteriorated and structurally unstable spine. In contrast, the internal cardboard sheets were preserved in comparatively better condition. While generally stable, several sheets displayed localized tears and minor losses along the edges, indicative of mechanical stress rather than advanced material deterioration.

The conservation treatment of the two photo albums has been published in Giandomenico Tiepolo’s Divertimento per ragazzi: The Recovered Albums of the Antonio Morassi Photo Archives (2026), a volume sponsored by Save Venice and curated by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Two Photo Albums of Giandomenico Tiepolo’s Divertimento per li regazzi
c. 1920-1930
Ca’ Foscari University

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Agazzi, Michela and Giulio Zavatta (eds.). Giandomenico Tiepolo’s Divertimento per regazzi. The recovered albums of Antonio Morassi Photo Archives. Treviso: Zel, 2026

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McHale, Katherine. Child’s Play? Giandomenico Tiepolo’s Punchinello Drawings and the Fall of Venice. In “Master Drawings,” 50, 1 (Autumn 2012): 95-114

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