Study for "The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian" (for the Augustinian monastery at Diessen, Germany)

In 1739 the Augustinian canons at Diessen, on the Ammersee lake south-west of Munich, were finishing a new church by the Munich architect Johann Michael Fischer. For two of its side altars they turned to Venice. Giambattista Pittoni painted one, and Tiepolo the other, a martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. This small canvas is Tiepolo's first design for his, submitted for approval before he began the full-size picture. Sebastian is bound to a tree and struck by arrows, his face turned up toward a putto coming down on a cloud with the palm of martyrdom.

The altarpiece is still in the church, but the sketch went its own way. After Bavaria dissolved its monasteries in 1803, it was offered at auction in Munich in 1804, found no buyer, and passed to the state picture collection. In 1852 that collection sold it at auction, and the Cleveland Museum of Art bought it in 1946.