Draped in a flowing regal red dress, a rosy-cheeked Madonna tilts her pelvis to the viewer’s right, dangling a rosary from her left hand and barely grasping her child with her right hand. Her heavy eyelids evoke a dreamlike state, the dramatic gestures amplified by chiaroscuro lighting.  

Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Tiepolo’s Madonna of The Rosary with Angels, the last major altarpiece by the renowned Venetian Rococo painter in private hands, is among 74 paintings on public exhibition at Sotheby’s New York beginning January 24, ahead of the Master Paintings Evening Sale on January 29.