An architectural capriccio of classical ruins with Alexander visiting the Tomb of Achilles

Giuseppe Zocchi spent much of his career in Florence, where he earned the sobriquet ‘Canaletto of Florence’ for his vedute of the city. At an early age, he was taken under the protection of the Marchese Andrea Gerini, a noble Florentine intellectual and patron of the arts, and sent to study the work of his contemporaries in Rome, Bologna, Milan and in particular Venice, where he remained for almost two years before returning to Florence around 1741. There he undertook an extensive project for the Marchese, who commissioned him to produce two series of etched views of Florence and its environs intended for visitors as mementos of their time in the city. A versatile artist, Zocchi also painted capricci of ancient ruins, following the footsteps of Giovanni Paolo Panini, whose work he could admire and study during a long stay in Rome in 1744. Several paintings attributed to Panini in the past are now considered to be by Zocchi, with this picture in particular discussed at length by Giancarlo Sestieri in his recent publication on Italian capricci (op. cit.). Professor Sestieri notes that Zocchi’s capriccio is indeed part of the Panini tradition, yet marked with his own independent creations: just as Zocchi’s foreground has a wealth of ancient architectural fragments, in the style of Panini, so his composition is structured with a second layer of architectural ruins above the three Corinthian columns, creating greater depth in the background to reveal an urban setting not commonly found in Panini. The arrangement of the figures is one not derived from Panini or Joli but indeed one original to Zocchi. These collective elements suggest a tentative date for the picture after the artist’s stay in Venice in 1740, with views of Canaletto, Bellotto and especially Marieschi fresh in his mind, and before his main stay in Rome.