Cleveland Museum of Art

The Game of Bowls

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Date

1797–1804

Medium

pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over traces of black chalk; framing lines in brown ink over graphite on antique laid paper

Culture

Italy, 18th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Here, Punchinello characters sporting their signature conical hats and hooked-nosed masks compete against a group of men in a lively game of bocce,an Italian bowling game . While their exaggerated movements infuse the drawing with a sense of whimsy, the massive prison fortress behind them suggests surveillance and control. Although not overtly political, this detail may allude to Venice’s fall to the French in 1797, which led to a ban on the commedia dell’arte, Italy’s popular theater tradition with its mocking Punchinellos. This drawing is part of a larger series that depicts the life of Punchinello, a clown-like character derived from Italian popular theater.

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