Lot 25

Robert Compton Jones

We are grateful to Federica Spadotto for confirming the attribution based on colour photographs.

RELATED WORKS:
Zuccarelli, Landscape with a Bridge, oil on canvas, 56 x 73cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary (inv. 650)

LOT ESSAY:
The superb painting under examination stands within Zuccarelli's artistic biography as a fascinating compendium of a highly complex and evocative artistic journey.

The Tuscan master arrived in Venice in 1732 and established himself as the most esteemed landscape painter of his time thanks to his Roman education and a uniquely classical sensibility. He developed a much-appreciated poetic formula in which the Venetian hinterland was idealised into a sort of Virgilian golden age.

The path toward this fusion began in the 1730s, when the young painter discovered the realism of Marco Ricci (Belluno, 1676 - Venice, 1730), into which he infused softly sentimental accents. Thus was born the Zuccarellian idyll, a precursor to the Platonic model formalized during his first stay in England (1752-1762).

And it is precisely across the Channel that one must look to fully understand and appreciate this painting, which sets the stage for an Arcadian landscape capable of hosting reflections on the many artistic currents of the time. We refer to the French Rococo, embodied by the elegant cavalier with his charming hat, followed by the shepherd and livestock on the stone bridge-an evident homage to Nicolaes Berchem (Haarlem, 1620 - Amsterdam, 1683), interpreted through the Venetian stylistic lens.

The arched stone bridge, in turn, harks back to Francesco's early days in Venice, as clearly shown by comparison with the Landscape with Bridge held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (Spadotto, 2007, cat.18; fig. 19).

From this comparison emerges the profound difference in sensibility between Zuccarelli's early artistic maturity and his long stay in England (1752-1762; 1765-1771; Spadotto, 2015), to which the painting in question belongs. In London, Francesco found the stimuli necessary to satisfy his curiosity and constant desire for experimentation, which is illustrated in the present lot in a highly distinctive style, characterized by richly textured brushwork in the depiction of figures.

Alongside recurring motifs-see the group of beggars, repeated on various occasions (cf. Spadotto, op. cit., 2007, cat. 228, 229, 283, 356; fig. 20)-new protagonists appear, such as the horse at the centre of the canvas. Its significance is linked to the English cultural environment, where the elegant animal often became the focus of evocative compositions-George Stubbs (Liverpool, 1724 - London, 1806) being a prime example-reflecting the British passion for the theme.

Zuccarelli must be credited here with an extraordinary ability to harmonize realistic elements with the ethereal Arcadian atmosphere, which unfolds in the pleasant pastoral background imbued with pastel tones and framed by the usual hazy blue mountains. However, it would be inaccurate to define this charming landscape as truly Arcadian because of the complex mix of influences that coexist within it, skilfully orchestrated by a master at the peak of his technical and formal powers.

The sophisticated painting style of Francesco's most accomplished work is combined with a poetic sensibility imbued with a distinctive pathos, which moves subtly through the narrative, seducing the viewer like a whisper within the notes of a composed harmony.

Federica Spadotto

Cited Bibliography:
F. Spadotto, Francesco Zuccarelli, Catalogo ragionato dei dipinti, Milan, 2007;