Flora and Zephyr

Born in Venice in 1675, Pellegrini received his training in the workshop of Paolo Pagani, with whom he traveled to Moravia and Vienna in 1690. In 1704, he was back in Venice, where he married Angela Carriera, the sister of the celebrated Grand Tour pastel portraitist, Rosalba. Four years later Pellegrini departed for London at the behest of Charles Montagu, the British Ambassador to Venice and later 1st Duke of Manchester. There he designed theatre sets and executed decorative paintings, including the celebrated series of frescos at Castle Howard. Pellegrini's successful entry into England's artistic circles was confirmed in 1711, when he became a founder-member and director of the country's first school for art, Godfrey Kneller's Academy in Great Queen Street. He subsequently travelled to France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, returning to Venice by 1735, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Marcel-André Baschet was a French painter, notable for his numerous portraits of the Presidents of the French Third Republic. His portrait of the composer, Claude Debussy, painted in 1884 is in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. In 1883 he won the Grand Prix de Rome for his depiction of Oedipus condemning his son Polynices.