Old Man with an Open Book, Old Man with a Beard, Old Man with a Glove on His Hand, Man with a Moustache 1775

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo created this print of four character studies using etching in Venice, though we don't know the exact date it was made. Tiepolo came from an artistic dynasty and here he evokes the kind of character studies done by Rembrandt in the Dutch Golden Age. But where Rembrandt tended to create individual portraits, here Tiepolo has made a print, an artwork designed for mass production and consumption. This speaks to Venice's status as a major centre for the print trade, and the growing market for art among a wider population beyond the aristocracy. Looking at the images themselves, you can see the artist's interest in capturing a range of human types, each distinguished by their distinctive facial features, expressions, and clothing. To understand these images better, we can look at fashion and social history books of the time to learn about the significance of clothing, age, or even facial hair during that time. Art is so often a product of its time, shaped by specific social and institutional forces.