(Pittigliano 1702–1788 Florence) Colazione in Campagna, oil on canvas, 85.5 x 109 cm, framed We are very grateful to Dr. Federica Spadotto for confirming the attribution of the present painting (written communication). Zuccarelli was celebrated for his depictions of pleasant rural settings of landscapes populated with small figures. The present work can been considered as an unusual work by the artist and was most probably a special commission, due to its unusual composition where figures are dominant and central. The crowded scene shows in fact many cultural references, ranging from the Flemish masters of the Seventeenth Century (see Gillis van Tilborgh’s Lunching peasants) to the subdued lyricism of the Le Nain brothers (see Landscape with peasants). These influences clearly reflect the interests of contemporary collectors for Dutch, Flemish and French genre painting. A characteristic element of Zuccarelli’s compositions is the sleek and elegant girl on the far right, present in many of Francesco’s landscapes from his first mature works (see F.Spadotto, Francesco Zuccarelli, catalogue raisonné of the paintings, Milan, 2007, cat. nos. 45,48,55), which is matched by the man wearing a torn greatcoat next to it, recalling Rembrandt’s stylistically similar protagonist of the Allegory of Winter (Spadotto, ibid, cat. 313). The two golden-haired children are also reminiscent of many cherubs in Zuccarrelli´s works (Spadotto, ibid, cat. 149,203,428). The reclining lady wearing a tricorn hat, worn to the right side as was fashionable in Venice around the mid-eighteenth century provides an essential link to another very unusual Zuccarelli composition, which was discovered by Morassi - the Europe and the Bull, in a private collection (see A.Morassi – G.Algranti (a cura di), Aspetti della pittura in Lombardia e nel Veneto nel ‘700, catalogo della mostra, Milano, 1968, cat. No 25, Sapadotto 2007, Cat No 314, Fig 4 9(ill.1), in which a similarly dressed lady is shown. As in the compostion of Europe and the Bull, Spadotto has suggested that the lady may well be a portrait. The figure is also helpful for suggesting a date of execution for the present work. Spadotto suggests a date between Zuccarelli’s first and second long sojourn in London and England, (1752-1762 and 1765-1771) as the influence of Dutch and Flemish models appears to be very much apparent. Zuccarelli began his apprenticeship in Rome in circa 1713-14 with the portrait painters Morandi (1622–1717) and Nelli (1672–1740), under whose tutorship he learned the elements of compostion while absorbing the lessons of Roman classicism. With the sponsorship of the Florentine art connoisseur Francisco Maria Niccolò Gabburri (1676–1742) in the late 1720s and early 1730s Zuccarelli focused on etching. During his Tuscan period, though he became preoccupied with figurative subjects and began to experiment with drawings in landscape, and according to Lanzi (La storia pittorica della Italia inferiore, o sia delle scuole fiorentina, senese, romana, napolitana. Firenze, Stamperia di Ant. Gius. Pagani, 1792) his introduction to the latter genre was through the Roman landscape painter Paolo Anesi (1697–1773). In 1732 Zuccarelli moved to Venice where he increasingly devoted his output to landscape painting. The death of Marco Ricci in 1730 had left a gap in Venice in the field of landscape painting, within an art market saturated with the works of history painters, and Zuccarelli’s unique blend of the countryside and Arcadia quickly achieved success. His rural scenes were populated with small figures reminiscent of Claude Lorrain, whose work he had studied in Rome.

additional picture
Francesco Zuccarelli, Europa und der Stier, Privatbesitz (Spadotto 2007, cat. No 314)