Two monks reading by a cross in a landscape

The drawing belongs to Tiepolo’s early career, when the artist experimented with this painterly monochromatic technique. Tiepolo employed red chalk wash, applying it with the brush. Over lighter layers of diluted wash he then added vigorous strokes of more dense colour to delineate the contours. The white of the paper was intentionally used to render the areas of brightness. Other sheets in the same technique are a Standing Soldier at the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. no. x1948-842; see C. van Cleve and L.M. Giles, Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, 2014, no. 76, ill.) and the Seated Roman Soldier at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (inv. no. D.1825:10-1885).