Turkish Lancer and Onlookers Approaching a Town

Turkish Lancer and Onlookers Approaching a Town

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sheet belongs to a group of drawings by the Venetian painter Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo of Ottoman Turkish horsemen and chieftains riding or resting in idyllic landscapes, accompanied by exotically clad attendants. Tiepolo's compositions generally reflect the contemporary artistic and literary taste in Venice for tales of exotic Eastern romance.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Turkish Lancer and Onlookers Approaching a TownTurkish Lancer and Onlookers Approaching a TownTurkish Lancer and Onlookers Approaching a TownTurkish Lancer and Onlookers Approaching a TownTurkish Lancer and Onlookers Approaching a Town

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.