Illustration for a Book: Reception of a Bishop Leading an Army at a City Gate

The work titled Illustration for a Book: Reception of a Bishop Leading an Army at a City Gate was created by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, the celebrated Venetian master, sometime between 1696 and 1770. This preparatory sheet is classified as a drawing and is executed entirely in black chalk, a medium that allows Tiepolo to focus intensely on composition and the interplay of mass and shadow essential for staging large narrative scenes. Indicating its intended use as a design study or illustration template, the sheet features faint horizontal and vertical centering lines ruled in the chalk, suggesting the artist planned for its accurate transfer or scaling to a larger surface, possibly for an etching or a published book plate.

The dramatic scene depicts a grand ceremonial entry, focusing on the moment a Bishop, likely a military or historical figure, leads his associated army through monumental gates. The composition expertly balances the architectural severity of the entry structures with the dynamism of the procession. The lower foreground is filled with detail, showing numerous figures, infantry, and the powerful presence of horses, all rendered with the rapid, confident strokes typical of Tiepolo’s drafting style. This drawing showcases the 18th-century master's ability to conceptualize and stage complex historical narratives even in preliminary studies. The work is classified as a drawing and is currently held in the esteemed collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Because this preparatory work is now in the public domain, high-resolution files and prints derived from the original are readily available for scholarly reference.