Giuseppe Zocchi (circle Of), View Of Piazza Santa Trinita In Florence, Oil On Canvas

Giuseppe Zocchi (circle of)
Florence, 1717 - 1767

View of Piazza Santa Trinita in Florence
oil on canvas, cm. 30x50
Within a frame for a total of cm. 42x62

The painting, in good condition, takes up one of the most famous engravings by Giuseppe Zocchi, a painter, engraver and designer active mainly in Florence.

Born into a family of modest origins, he entered the workshop of Ranieri del Pace, where he began to make a name for himself as an interior decorator. Having come under the protection of the Marquis Andrea Gerini, he was able to travel to Venice, Milan, Bologna and Rome, where he learned the new artistic trends and developed a certain curiosity towards the landscape and contemporary society.

His most famous work is a series of 25 views of the city of Florence and 50 of the grand ducal villas and places in the surroundings of Florence, commissioned by Andrea Gerini and published starting in 1744, which immediately had considerable success and diffusion at a European level. His style was inspired by Venetian vedutism, with an ability to render clear depictions of landscapes and architecture in general, with a notable attention to detail, which makes this series a very precious document of eighteenth-century Florence.

It is precisely from this work that our painting derives, a View of the Piazza di Santa Trinita in Florence where, in addition to the buildings of the splendid Tuscan city rendered with great attention to detail, the figures that are the protagonists of the foreground of the canvas play a fundamental role. Rendered with speed, almost as if to underline once again the idea of ​​movement and dynamism that animates them, all the characters of the engraving are found. The fact that they are slightly less detailed than the original etching suggests an attribution to a pupil of Zocchi, or more likely to an artist active in his studio.