It is now a commonly accepted opinion that in his early years, in the period between the end of the 1720s and the beginning of the 1730s, Giambattista Tiepolo seemed to be equally attentive to the model works of his contemporaries, masters belonging to two different artistic currents at that time most popular in Venice. One of them was the "neotenebrosi", originating still in the 17th century, in Baroque art, of which the main representative was Giambattista Piazzetta. The other, more modern current, of the "chiaristi", followed the example of 16th-century painter, Paolo Veronese. The unquestionable leader of the latter movement was Sebastiano Ricci.

The two paintings, which until now have been unpublished and are presented here for the first time — David with the Head of Goliath and The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, belonging to two different private collections — are good examples of those diverse interests of the young Venetian painter at the very beginning of the 1720s. The first picture, built on rather dark colour scheme, is in fact an obvious homage to the art of Piazzetta, also in that regard that its theme is derived from a painting by that master (currently in a private collection in Ireland), though it has been substantially modified in details, according the sensibility of the younger painter. The second canvas, on the other hand, already shows the brightening up of the colour scheme. The colours are becoming very luminous; clearly visible is the inventiveness and compositional mastery of the painter, the softness in rendering of the figures — traits which in future were to become the "signature" of the mature output of Tiepolo