# The Discovery of Pulcinella’s Grave

- By: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice, 1696–1770)
- Date: in or before c. 1750
- Medium: paper
- Classification: print
- Dimensions: height 223 mm x width 182 mm
- Credit line: Purchased with the support of the J.W. Edwin Vom Rath Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/RP-P-1950-665--24b5560dc079a1316ff93eae2332e14f)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/cBIif/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

How can Pulcinella’s grave be discovered? After all, Pulcinella is a stock character in the commedia dell’ arte, the improvised Italian theatre. As such he does not actually exist, yet he is nevertheless immortal. However, everything is possible in the world that sprang from Tiepolo’s mind, and so he lies buried here (right foreground). The bone and hourglass emphasize that Pulcinella is also just a human, who has died.