Beginning in 1764, the German-born painter Johan Zoffany received numerous commissions from the Hanoverian King George III and his consort, Queen Charlotte. The queen ordered Zoffany to paint "the Florence Gallery" (the Galleria degli Uffizi), for which the artist would be paid £300.[1] In the summer of 1772, Zoffany left London for Florence, where he met Felton Hervey, an art collector and friend of the king and queen, who figures prominently in the painting.[2] Zoffany worked on the painting through late 1777 and returned to England in 1779.[1] By this time Hervey had died.[2]
The painting depicts the Tribuna of the Uffizi, an octagonal gallery designed by Bernardo Buontalenti in 1584. The most important ancient and Renaissance works were displayed in this gallery in the 18th century, making it an essential highlight of the Grand Tour.
Artworks shown
Zoffany's picture is not a historical record of the works displayed in the tribuna in the 1770s. Rather, it is an epitome of the works in the Medici collections he felt to be most important. To accomplish that goal, several works from other rooms in the Uffizi and seven paintings from the Galleria Palatina in the Palazzo Pitti were transferred to the Tribuna. To accomplish this, Zoffany requested the assistance of George, 3rd Earl Cowper, who had emigrated to Florence and Sir Horace Mann, who served as British diplomatic representative in Florence to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Two pictures by Raphael which Earl Cowper owned and hoped to sell to George III, and the Earl are depicted in Zoffany's painting. The unframed Samian Sibyl on the floor, acquired for the Medici collection in 1777, was a pendant to Guercino's Libyan Sibyl, recently bought by George III, and its inclusion may have been intended as a compliment to him.
Many of the ancient sculptures painted by Zoffany can be identified, although few remain on their 18th century locations today. (The Medici's Roman statues stand in the main corridors of the Uffizi Gallery, except those which are still in the Tribuna. The smaller works are now in the collections of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale and the Museo Bargello in Florence).
Zoffany's
Original
Author and title
Where
Current location
Bust of a young woman, previously known as Plautilla
Left shelf
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Bust of a young man, previously known as Geta
Left shelf
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Bust of a woman
Left shelf
Museo degli Argenti, Florence
Ancient Roman bust of a Julio-Claudian woman, previously known as Livia (?)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi combines aspects of the British 18th-century conversation piece, or informal group portrait, with that of the predominantly Flemish 17th-century tradition of Wunderkammer and gallery views. Thus, the figures populating Zoffany's painting are all identifiable as connoisseurs, diplomats and visitors to Florence. The inclusion of so many recognisable portraits was criticized by Zoffany's royal patrons, and by Horace Walpole, who called it "a flock of travelling boys, and one does not know nor care whom."[3]
Two more connoisseurs are near the Satiro. The first is reported to be Joseph Leeson, 2nd Earl of Milltown, even if his portrait does not match in age and resemblance those in the National Gallery of Ireland by Pompeo Batoni, and Valentine Knightley of Fawsley.
Further to the center of the painting Pietro Bastianelli, curator of the Uffizi Gallery, shows the Venus of Urbino by Titian to John Gordon,[nb 2]Thomas Patch who is apparently the man touching the Venus, but pointing to the figure of a male nude (believed to be a reference to Patch's homosexuality),[6]Sir John Taylor and Sir Horace Mann. The sitting man, looking back towards, is the Hon. Felton Hervey.
The group around the Medici Venus include John Finch, Mr. Wilbraham (one of the sons of Roger Wilbraham of Nantwich), Mr. Watts, Mr. Doughty and, on the other side, Thomas Wilbraham (the second son) and James Bruce.
^This painting was owned by Zoffany at the moment: this explains its prominence.
^Described in contemporary Italian newspapers as "Mr. Gordon, an English official".[4]John Chambers wrote in 1829 that Rev. William Gordon of Saxlingham possessed several paintings "collected by John Gordon, who figured in Zoffany's picture of the Gallery of Florence".[4][5]
^Chambers, John (1829). "Hundred of Henstead". A General History of the County of Norfolk, Intended to Convey All the Information of a Norfolk Tour. Vol. II. Norwich: John Stacy. pp. 759–760. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
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