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oil on canvas Prof. George Knox has confirmed the present painting to be a work by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, on the basis of photographs. This painting was originally conceived as part of a celebrated series of ``Philosopher Portraits'' painted by Giovanni Domenico circa 1758. The series was based on etchings by the artist, most after paintings by his father Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, which were published in two volumes, each of about thirty heads, entitled the Raccolta di Teste. Prof. Knox notes that with few exceptions ``all paintings of this kind relate to the first book of the Raccolta di teste ...etchings...all apparently related to a series of idealised portraits of old men which appear to be philosopher portraits, uniform in size, measuring about 24 by 20 in. or 60 by 50 cm.'' (see G. Knox, ``Philosopher Portraits by Giambattista, Domenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo" in Burlington Magazine, XCVII, March, 1975, No. 874, pp. 147). The present painting relates most closely to an etching (numbered at top right 29) from the first book depicting a mathematician (see fig. 1). Knox speculates that Giovanni Domenico's group of philosopher portraits may have been a specific commission, and has suggested the possible involvement of Count Francesco Algarotti. Algarotti, an art collector and writer, was a friend and patron of Giambattista Tiepolo. He served as art advisor for Frederick-Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and, later, for Frederick the Great. Knox points out that such a commission would have fit Algarotti's ``antiquarian and literary turn of mind'' and would have made an ``appropriate offering to one of his princely friends in Germany, even Frederick the Great himself" (Ibid., p. 151). Another version of the present composition by Giovanni Domenico is in the Academia de San Fernando, Madrid. A painting from this same series was sold at Sotheby's, London, July 4, 1990, lot 16, for £225,500 ($389,868).