Tiepolo was the outstanding Venetian decorative painter of the eighteenth century, and he was a talented draughtsman who produced a vast number of drawings. This is one of over seventy seemingly effortless variations on the theme of the Holy Family which were apparently drawn in the 1750s as independent works of art. They were originally bound together in an album, the provenance of which can be traced back to Tiepolo himself via, among other owners, the sculptor Antonio Canova.