This painting shows an episode from the mythological Trojan War, as described by the Roman poet Virgil in the Aeneid. The Trojans rejoice as they pull a large wooden horse into their city, believing it to be a gift from the gods; it actually conceals a band of Greek soldiers. In the background, Cassandra, daughter of the King of Troy, is being arrested for having prophesied disaster if the horse entered the city. She turned out to be right: once inside, the Greeks took control of Troy.

   The feverish activity of the crowd and the horse’s muscular build and looming stature convey the story’s epic nature. The high walls and the sharply receding space lead our eye towards the city of Troy in the distance, which Tiepolo based on ancient buildings and fortifications in Rome.

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   This painting shows an episode from the mythological Trojan War, as described by the Roman poet Virgil in the Aeneid. The Trojans rejoice as they pull a large wooden horse into their city, believing it to be a gift from the gods. An inscription in Latin on the horse’s side reads ‘PALADI VOTUM’ (An offering to Pallas). This was another name for the Greek goddess Athena, famed for her wisdom, courage and strength in warfare.

   The horse actually conceals a band of Greek soldiers, waiting to attack. In the centre background, we see the arrest of Cassandra, daughter of the King of Troy, who had prophesied disaster if the horse entered the city. She was declared mad but turned out to be correct: once inside Troy, the Greeks took control the city.

   This sketch conveys something of the story’s epic nature in the feverish activity of the crowd and the horse’s looming stature. As in The Building of the Trojan Horse, Domenico has ignored the fact that the horse was a piece of sculpture and modelled it to look like a flesh-and-blood animal, with a close study of its muscular body and the texture of its mane and tail. Here, the pose emphasises the direction in which the row of men are pushing the horse. Another group use all their strength to tug on ropes attached to the horse’s sides; one young boy is not quite tall enough to help. The high walls, upon which people gather to catch a glimpse of what’s going on, and the sharply receding space lead our eye towards the distant city, which is made up of buildings of different heights and styles. The view of Troy is based closely on ancient buildings in Rome, and the gigantic battlements recall ancient fortifications.

   This scene and The Building of the Trojan Horse were intended as oil sketches for much larger paintings. As a preliminary design, Domenico sketched in the outlines of the figures rapidly and then brushed in colour to give a three-dimensional appearance. The colour is rather muted, with ochre, beige and greys, and the only strong colour accent is the woman’s red dress at the centre. We know that Domenico painted the monumental pictures in around 1773/4, but the location of the work that relates to this sketch is unknown. The final painting of The Building of the Trojan Horse is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum in in Hartford, Connecticut.

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   The Building of the Trojan Horse and The Procession of the Trojan Horse by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo are part of a series illustrating the fall of Troy, an ancient city on the coast of Turkey that was besieged by Greek armies for ten years. The story of the Trojan War was a central part of Greek mythology.

   The Aeneid by Virgil (Book 2) gives the clearest account of the end of the war: the Greeks built a giant wooden horse in which they could hide their men and left it outside the impregnable walls of Troy. The horse was a sacred animal to the Trojans and they brought the model into the city, believing it to be a gift from the gods. Under the cover of darkness, the Greek soldiers left their hiding place and took control of Troy.

   These scenes follow Virgil’s account fairly closely. Domenico’s first painting shows tradesmen sculpting and painting the wooden horse, and in the second image the horse is being wheeled into Troy by the unsuspecting Trojans. There is a third sketch in this series, now possibly in a private collection in Paris, which depicts the Greeks descending from the horse to attack the city.

   Painted in around 1760, these scenes were probably intended as preparatory designs for larger oil paintings. Domenico’s monumental picture, The Procession of the Trojan Horse, which measures about two by four metres, is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, but the whereabouts of the other large canvasses, if they existed, is not known. As preliminary sketches rather than finished paintings, Domenico’s technique looks rather hurried with fluid brushstrokes, thickly applied paint and pale colours; he has given little attention to details such as the faces and clothing, but has still managed to capture a sense of movement and emotion in both scenes.

   Domenico spent his earlier career working on commissions in and around Venice, but also in Spain and Germany, many of which were in collaboration with his father, Giovanni Battista, and brother Lorenzo. These sketches were possibly made shortly after Domenico’s return to Venice from Würzburg, where he had assisted his father on an impressive series of frescoes – see Domenico’s oil sketch The Marriage of Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy.

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