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The Woman with a Tambourine
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Observed by Punchinello and friends, a centaur is subdued by a maiden’s musical charms. Rendered touchingly vulnerable, the creature lies with its head on the girl’s lap. One of the simplest instruments, the tambourine was typically played by itinerant musicians—nymphs, vagabonds, seducers—and was traditionally considered the quintessential attribute of the outsider, an aspect reinforced in the 20th century by Bob Dylan’s "Mr. Tambourine Man."
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineThe Woman with a Tambourine, 1790s. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, 1727–1804). Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink over graphite; sheet: 35.4 x 47.3 cm (13 15/16 x 18 5/8 in.); image: 29.7 x 41.7 cm (11 11/16 x 16 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1947.12
