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Lot Essay
This picture is by the most accomplished Tuscan topographical artist of the mid-eighteenth century. Trained in Florence, Giuseppe Zocchi was enabled by his patron, Marchese Andrea Gerini (1691-1766) to travel extensively in Italy. His reputation rests on the small group of Florentine views to which this canvas belongs, and on three sequences of engravings after his views of Florence and of villas in Tuscany published in 1744 and 1757.
This oblique view of the Piazza Santissima Annunziata is framed on the left by the last house on the west side of the Via dei Servi, beyond which are seven bays of the portico of the Confraternita dei Servi di San Marco, built by Antonio da Sangallo the elder and Baccio d'Agnolo in 1516-25 in emulation of that of the Spedale degli Innocenti, seen in shadow on the right, which was designed by Brunelleschi and built between 1419 and 1426. Ahead is the portico of the church of Santissima Annunziata which was begun by Michelozzo: the central bay of the portico was designed by Antonio Manetti, who was strongly influenced by Leon Battista Alberti and constructed the tribuna, the top of which is shown, in 1447: the lateral bays of the portico were added by G.B. Caccani in 1599-1601. In the piazza are shown the equestrian monument to Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany, completed by Ferdinando Tacca in 1608, and the pair of bronze fountains supplied by the latter to the design of Bernardino Redi in 1629.
The portico and piazza were clearly intended to be approached frontally down the Via dei Servi, but Zocchi, whose visit to Venice had familiarised him with the approach to topography evolved by Canaletto and also practised by Marieschi, clearly understood that an oblique approach would be visually more satisfactory. Like Canaletto he no doubt used a mechanical device to record the details of the topography from more than one viewpoint, but the results were carefully fused. The corner of the house on the Via dei Servi is recorded, wholly accurately, from a position some yards down that street. The relative position of the equestrian statue and the loggia of the Confraternita were taken from the westernmost window on the first floor of the building across the road, now the hotel Due Fontane: while the portico of the church is seen from ground level from a position to the east of the same building. Zocchi's engraving corresponds in composition, but the implied viewpoint is somewhat further back and the details of the figures and the carriage differ: the original drawing for this is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (Gregori and Blasio, p. 180, fig. 223). On the basis of the illustration in the 1975 sale catalogue, Gregori and Blasio fairly comment that this is perhaps the picture in which Zocchi is closest to Canaletto 'per la forza delle ombre' and to Marieschi 'per la chiarità e la nitidezza del campo'. More recently Bozena Kowalczyk has established that the young Bellotto was in Florence at the invitation of Marchese Gerini in the summer of 1740 (op. cit., p. 24): the pictures that resulted from this visit, now at Budapest and Russborough, were evidently studied closely by Zocchi as is seen in this picture, which is presumably of 1740-1, as in his manuscript 'Vita di pittori, 1719-41 circa' Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri, who died in 1742, mentions pictures by Zocchi 'nel gusto del Celebre Canaletto' (cf. Gregori and Blasio, p. 190) and more specifically referred to 'diverse vedute a olio, delle quali in buon numero ne ha fatte in disegno che presentemente stanno intagliandosi in rame da varii primary intagliatori' (cf. B.A. Kowalczyk, 'Bellotto and Zanetti in Florence', The Burlington Magazine, CLIV, January 2012, pp. 28-9). This picture was indeed both designed and executed by Zocchi, while the print was copied from it by a professional engraver. Entitled 'Veduta della Piazza della SS Nunziata, Statua Equestre di Ferdinando Primo, Fonti e Loggie Laterali', this was published as plate XIV in Zocchi's Scelta di XXIV vedute delle principali contrade, piazza, chiese e palazzi della città di Firenze of 1744.
By an odd coincidence Bellotto painted six views of Florence (see, most recently, Kowalczyk, loc. cit.): and this is one of six pictures by Zocchi recorded by Gregori and Blasio. Of these, two were supplied to the artist's main patron, Marchese Andrea Gerini (The Piazza della Signoria, sold at Sotheby's, and Florence from the Porta San Niccolò, Gregori and Blasio, figs. 250 and 249); while three others were owned by Conte Galli Tassi (the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Piazza San Firenze sold in these Rooms, 10 July 1981, and, probably, a View of the Arno with the Ponte Santa Trinita, in the Thyssen Collection, op. cit., figs. 252, 247 and 251).
The first recorded owner of this picture, the architect Samuel Ware, was the son of a leather-merchant and became a student at the Royal Academy in 1800. He worked for the Duke of Devonshire both at Chatsworth and Lismore and designed the Burlington Arcade. He undertook alterations at Northumberland House for the Duke of Northumberland and managed the London property of the 4th Duke of Portland. He built up a considerable fortune, acquiring Hendon Hall, which he rebuilt and which passed on his death to his nephew, C.N. Cumberlege, who also maintained his architectural practice.
This oblique view of the Piazza Santissima Annunziata is framed on the left by the last house on the west side of the Via dei Servi, beyond which are seven bays of the portico of the Confraternita dei Servi di San Marco, built by Antonio da Sangallo the elder and Baccio d'Agnolo in 1516-25 in emulation of that of the Spedale degli Innocenti, seen in shadow on the right, which was designed by Brunelleschi and built between 1419 and 1426. Ahead is the portico of the church of Santissima Annunziata which was begun by Michelozzo: the central bay of the portico was designed by Antonio Manetti, who was strongly influenced by Leon Battista Alberti and constructed the tribuna, the top of which is shown, in 1447: the lateral bays of the portico were added by G.B. Caccani in 1599-1601. In the piazza are shown the equestrian monument to Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany, completed by Ferdinando Tacca in 1608, and the pair of bronze fountains supplied by the latter to the design of Bernardino Redi in 1629.
The portico and piazza were clearly intended to be approached frontally down the Via dei Servi, but Zocchi, whose visit to Venice had familiarised him with the approach to topography evolved by Canaletto and also practised by Marieschi, clearly understood that an oblique approach would be visually more satisfactory. Like Canaletto he no doubt used a mechanical device to record the details of the topography from more than one viewpoint, but the results were carefully fused. The corner of the house on the Via dei Servi is recorded, wholly accurately, from a position some yards down that street. The relative position of the equestrian statue and the loggia of the Confraternita were taken from the westernmost window on the first floor of the building across the road, now the hotel Due Fontane: while the portico of the church is seen from ground level from a position to the east of the same building. Zocchi's engraving corresponds in composition, but the implied viewpoint is somewhat further back and the details of the figures and the carriage differ: the original drawing for this is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (Gregori and Blasio, p. 180, fig. 223). On the basis of the illustration in the 1975 sale catalogue, Gregori and Blasio fairly comment that this is perhaps the picture in which Zocchi is closest to Canaletto 'per la forza delle ombre' and to Marieschi 'per la chiarità e la nitidezza del campo'. More recently Bozena Kowalczyk has established that the young Bellotto was in Florence at the invitation of Marchese Gerini in the summer of 1740 (op. cit., p. 24): the pictures that resulted from this visit, now at Budapest and Russborough, were evidently studied closely by Zocchi as is seen in this picture, which is presumably of 1740-1, as in his manuscript 'Vita di pittori, 1719-41 circa' Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri, who died in 1742, mentions pictures by Zocchi 'nel gusto del Celebre Canaletto' (cf. Gregori and Blasio, p. 190) and more specifically referred to 'diverse vedute a olio, delle quali in buon numero ne ha fatte in disegno che presentemente stanno intagliandosi in rame da varii primary intagliatori' (cf. B.A. Kowalczyk, 'Bellotto and Zanetti in Florence', The Burlington Magazine, CLIV, January 2012, pp. 28-9). This picture was indeed both designed and executed by Zocchi, while the print was copied from it by a professional engraver. Entitled 'Veduta della Piazza della SS Nunziata, Statua Equestre di Ferdinando Primo, Fonti e Loggie Laterali', this was published as plate XIV in Zocchi's Scelta di XXIV vedute delle principali contrade, piazza, chiese e palazzi della città di Firenze of 1744.
By an odd coincidence Bellotto painted six views of Florence (see, most recently, Kowalczyk, loc. cit.): and this is one of six pictures by Zocchi recorded by Gregori and Blasio. Of these, two were supplied to the artist's main patron, Marchese Andrea Gerini (The Piazza della Signoria, sold at Sotheby's, and Florence from the Porta San Niccolò, Gregori and Blasio, figs. 250 and 249); while three others were owned by Conte Galli Tassi (the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Piazza San Firenze sold in these Rooms, 10 July 1981, and, probably, a View of the Arno with the Ponte Santa Trinita, in the Thyssen Collection, op. cit., figs. 252, 247 and 251).
The first recorded owner of this picture, the architect Samuel Ware, was the son of a leather-merchant and became a student at the Royal Academy in 1800. He worked for the Duke of Devonshire both at Chatsworth and Lismore and designed the Burlington Arcade. He undertook alterations at Northumberland House for the Duke of Northumberland and managed the London property of the 4th Duke of Portland. He built up a considerable fortune, acquiring Hendon Hall, which he rebuilt and which passed on his death to his nephew, C.N. Cumberlege, who also maintained his architectural practice.