Various Caprices: The Three Soldiers and the Boy

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Various Caprices: The Three Soldiers and the Boy, executed between 1730 and 1755, is a masterful example of the etching medium. This classification as a print demonstrates a shift by the great Venetian painter toward smaller, more intimate explorations of form and composition. Tiepolo produced two major series of etchings, the Capricci and the Scherzi di Fantasia, which are considered seminal examples of 18th-century graphic arts in Italy. Unlike his grand fresco cycles commissioned across Europe, these prints allowed Tiepolo to explore fantastical, non-narrative subjects known as capricci—literally, caprices or whims.

In this work, Tiepolo depicts three figures identifiable as soldiers, grouped loosely around a young boy, perhaps engaged in an exchange or observation near classical ruins. While the meaning remains deliberately ambiguous, characteristic of the genre, the overall mood combines the picturesque with a sense of melancholic contemplation. The etching technique utilized by Tiepolo employs light, sharp lines and varied hatching to achieve atmospheric effects, perfectly capturing texture and shadow. The resulting prints showcase the spontaneity and brilliance of the artist’s draftsmanship. This piece, which exemplifies the sophisticated artistic output flourishing in 18th-century Italy, is preserved within the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Its enduring artistic influence ensures that copies and high-resolution images of the Various Caprices: The Three Soldiers and the Boy are often found among artworks available in the public domain.