Landscape With Figures - Giuseppe Zocchi (1711-1767)

Giuseppe Zocchi (Florence 1711-1767), Landscape with figures

Oil on canvas

The fine painting depicts a green and sunny landscape. On the right, in the foreground, under the shadow of tall plants there is a mirror of water. On the bank of the river sits a fisherman, in the company of a character stretched out and leaning against a fragment of tree trunk. Immediately behind there are goats and, on the left, in the second floor, a rural scene: a woman, standing, indicates to the man sitting a place beyond the waterfall.
The arcadic atmosphere, the accurate description of the landscape, the soft brushstrokes applied with a fluid and safe touch allow to ascribe the canvas to the hand of the italian florentine Giuseppe Zocchi, confirming the attribution that Lorenzo Gilardi made in 1984.
Painter and engraver, lame thanks to the protection of the marquis Andrea Gerini, travels a lot, to Venice, Milan, Bologna and Rome, where he learns the new artistic trends and specializes in landscapes and views of the Veneto-Tuscany. His most significant work, of immediate diffusion at European level, is a series of 25 views of the city of Florence and 50 of the Grand Ducal villas and places around Florence, commissioned by the Gerini and published starting from 1744. Its style evokes the Venetian view, with clear depictions of landscapes and architecture. Remarkable attention to detail.

Through the comparison between this canvas and other works of the painter you can see the similarity of the colors used and the same classicist taste.
We have to note how in various paintings and engravings of the lame returns the figure of the fisherman or the traveler with stick whose position and attitude is very close to that of the character in the foreground of the painting in object.

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