A capriccio with a Gothic church and antique ruins

This gouache was offered for sale, together with other five in the same series, in 1981 in London (Christie’s, London, 7 July 1981, lots 159-164). Anthony Lefroy most likely owned the group in the middle of the 18th Century. Lefroy was a prominent figure in the British merchant community in Leghorn and he was also an important collector and connoisseur; his collections of antiquities and coins are now part of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The Gothic church in the background and the marble statue of the lion on the right are elements that Ricci employed in other of his works. A variant of the present composition, known since the beginning of the 20th Century is dated 1727, two years before the artist’s death (see T. Bodkin, ‘Variations on a Pictorial Theme by Marco Ricci’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, XLII (1934-1935), p. 9, ill.).