Giuseppe Zocchi

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas is lined and the paint layer is stable and flat. There is a scattering of minor paint losses in the sky and elsewhere across the surface, and compromised glazes to the shadows in the water and the pyramid. Overall, in a good condition with the impasto and paint texture well preserved. The varnish is discoloured and removing it would improve the tonality. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame, in good condition with some worm damage."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Zocchi began his studies in Florence under the guidance of Marchese Andrea Gerini who sent the young artist to Rome and Venice, among other places, to study the works of the great masters. This painting is an exciting addition to the artist's oeuvre and is entirely typical of his work in the second half of the 1740s when he had returned to Florence after his absence from the city.

In the present work we find Zocchi synthesizing the various styles that he had seen on his travels around Italy. While the warm light which permeates the scene looks back to Marco Ricci, whom he would have studied during his Venetian stay, here he also reworks the various architectural elements more reminiscent of Panini, whose work he would have seen in Rome, thus creating his own original composition. The strong but gradual use of perspective and the depiction of the pyramid - likely to be loosely based on the tomb of Gaius Cestius in Rome - recall a later signed work sold in these Rooms, 22 May 1985, lot 48. The pyramid also recurs in L'Africa, a work on canvas of 1760 in the Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence (inv. no. 952). The figures in these two works and those in the present painting also display the artist's topos of figures holding sticks.

This lot is accompanied by the certificates of Prof. Dario Succi and Dr. Annalisa Scarpa Sonino, both of whom endorse the attribution to Giuseppe Zocchi and propose a date of circa 1745-50 for the painting.