Tempera on paper on canvas, cm. 38.5×52
Within gilded wooden frame for a total of cm. 55×68
The landscape composition is characterized by an archaeological ruin with a niche and statue on the left, partially surrounded by lush vegetation, a rural thatched hut on the right, and a central waterway.
In the center, two male figures in conversation and a knight with a horse; in the distance, hills and cloudy skies.
The tempera technique features veiled layers, white lead highlights and green and blue tones with pink accents, on medium-sized paper then glued to canvas for preservation.
The composition offers an ideal view with a central axis marked by water, which balances ancient ruins and rural dwellings in a dialogue between past and present, a recurring pattern in the landscapes of Zucchini.
The figures are slender and naturally moved, dressed in a pastoral manner (broad hats, cloaks), subordinated to the landscape but functional to the narrative scansion; more elegant than popular, typical of the Venetian Rococo style.
The landscape features thick but not wild vegetation, with slender trees and touches of diffused light; the straw hut introduces a Venetian vernacular element, common in Zuccarelli's paintings inspired by the Tuscan and Venetian countryside.
The work is part of Francesco Zuccarelli, a master of the Venetian-Tuscan Arcadian landscape active between Venice, Florence and Rome in the second half of the 18th century.
The idyllic layout, with classical elements (the ruins with statues) integrated into a pastoral context (hut, peasant figures) and the soft, luminous atmosphere recall Zuccarelli's preparatory sketches and cartoons for frescoes and decorative canvases.
The small size and degree of finishing suggest the hand of the master or of an independent workshop or a painter trained in his orbit, perhaps for the commission of a Venetian villa.
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SILVER Seller in Venezia, Italy
