The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Scherzi di Fantasia: Magician Pointing Out a Burning Head to Two Youths

1750–60

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

(Italian, 1696–1770)
Italy, 18th century
etching
Sheet: 39 x 27.1 cm (15 3/8 x 10 11/16 in.); Platemark: 22.6 x 18.5 cm (8 7/8 x 7 5/16 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1998.113
Catalogue raisonné: De Vesme 16, Rizzi 7
Location: Not on view

Description

A scherzo is a musical composition made up of little phrases, with implications of playfulness. Tiepolo's Scherzi are improvised scenes of magicians, philosophers, soldiers, old men in turbans, and shepherds who consult horoscopes, skulls, skeletons, and snakes among altars, ruins, and ancient bas-reliefs. The transitory nature of life, the vanity of human pursuits, and direct confrontation with death, are the recurring themes. The eerie mood of the prints reflect the preoccupation of 18th-century Venice with magic, superstition, and witchcraft. Light was Tiepolo's essential means of expression and the basic element of his style. The sensation of sunlight bathing each scene is an illusion created by the contrast of the nervous, broken lines against white paper. Shade is obliterated; even the darkest areas are transparent as they, too, are created out of light.
  • ?-1998
    (C.G. Boerner LLC, New York, NY)
    September 8, 1998
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Allure of La Serenissima: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Art. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK (organizer) (September 9, 2010-January 2, 2011).
    Oklahoma City Museum of Art (9/9/2010 - 1/2/2011): "The Allure of La Serenissima: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Art", cat. no. 65, p. 160.
    From Rembrandt to Rauschenberg: Recently Acquired Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17-November 26, 2000).
    Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; September 17 - November 26, 2000. "From Rembrandt to Rauschenberg: Recently Acquired Prints."
  • {{cite web|title=Scherzi di Fantasia: Magician Pointing Out a Burning Head to Two Youths|url=false|author=Giovanni Battista Tiepolo|year=1750–60|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.113