Cleveland Museum of Art

The Woman with a Tambourine

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Date

1790s

Medium

pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink over graphite

Culture

Italy, 18th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Observed by Punchinello and friends, a centaur is subdued by a maiden’s musical charms. Rendered touchingly vulnerable, the creature lies with its head on the girl’s lap. One of the simplest instruments, the tambourine was typically played by itinerant musicians—nymphs, vagabonds, seducers—and was traditionally considered the quintessential attribute of the outsider, an aspect reinforced in the 20th century by Bob Dylan’s "Mr. Tambourine Man."

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.