Punchinello Chopping Logs 1790 - 1804

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo created this drawing, Punchinello Chopping Logs, using pen and brown wash. It is not dated, but most likely comes from late Eighteenth-Century Venice. This is one of over 100 drawings that make up Tiepolo’s Divertimento per li Regazzi, or “Entertainment for the Children”, in which the artist returns again and again to the figure of Punchinello, or Punch, a commedia dell’arte character known for his wit and malice. Look at the repetition of the hat and the hunched backs of the figures. These drawings were not made for children. They were made for other adults. The humor is black and the satire biting, but the meaning of both remains obscure to us today. Is this about the division of labor? Is it a commentary on the state of the Venetian Republic, on its decline? Only further art historical research can help us establish the social meaning of this and other works like it.