Tribuna of the Uffizi (painting)

The Tribuna of the Uffizi
Artist Johann Zoffany
Year 1772–78
Type Oil painting
Dimensions 123.5 cm × 155.0 cm (48.6 in × 61.0 in)
Location Royal Collection, Windsor Castle

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (1772–1778) by Johann Zoffany is a painting of the north-east section of the Tribuna room in the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. The painting is part of the United Kingdom's Royal Collection.

Production

In the summer of 1772 Zoffany left London for Florence with a commission from Queen Charlotte to paint 'the Florence Gallery'. (Neither she nor her husband George III ever visited Italy in person.) Felton Hervey who had a large art collection and who knew the Royal family met Zoffany in Florence. He was included in a prominent position in the painting by December 1772.[1] Zoffany was still working on the painting late in 1777, he only finally returned to England in 1779.[2] By this time Hervey had died.[1]

History

Johann Zoffany was a German born painter who had become successful in London. One of his principal patrons was the Royal family. Queen Charlotte had sent Zoffany to Florence where he had agreed to paint the Tribuna of the Uffizi. The agreed price was high and he was paid £300.[2]

Artworks shown

Zoffany has varied the arrangement of the artworks and introduced others from elsewhere in the Medici collection. He gained special privileges, with the help of George, 3rd Earl Cowper (1738–80), and Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet (1706–86), such as having seven paintings, including Raphael's Madonna della Sedia, temporarily brought in from the Pitti Palace so that he could paint them in situ in the Tribuna. In thanks Zoffany included a portrait of Cowper looking at his recent acquisition,[3] Raphael's Niccolini-Cowper Madonna (Cowper hoped to sell it on to George III – it is now in the Washington National Gallery of Art), with Zoffany holding it (to the left of the Dancing Faun).

The unframed Samian Sibyl on the floor was acquired for the Medici collection in 1777 - it was a workshop copy of the pendant to Guercino's Libyan Sibyl, recently bought by George III, and may be intended as a compliment to him.

Venus with a Satyr and Cupids by Annibale Carracci Raphael, Madonna della Sedia (Madonna of the Chair), c.1514 Guido Reni, Charity, 1607 Raphael, St John the Baptist Reni, Madonna Madonna della seggiola Correggio, Madonna and Child Justus Sustermans, Galileo Raphael, Madonna of the Goldfinch Franciabigio - Madonna of the Well Guido Reni, Cleopatra, 1635–40 Holy Family, then attributed to Perugino Rubens, Justus Lipsius with his Pupils, c.1615 Portrait of Leo X with two Cardinals by Raphael Tribute Money? by Carravagio? Rubens, Justus Lipsius with his Pupils, c.1615 Raphael, Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, 1518 Niccolini-Cowper Madonna by Raphael Large central painting Holbein, Sir Richard Southwell, 1536 Cristofano Allori, Miracle of St Julian Holy Family, attributed to Niccolò Soggi ummm Raphael, Niccolini-Cowper Madonna, 1508, then in Lord Cowper’s possession, having bought it from Zoffany, now National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538 Cupid and Psyche, Roman copy of a Greek original of the 1st or 2nd century BC The ‘Arrotino’ (Knife-Grinder), a Pergamene original of 2nd or 3rd century BC Dancing Faun, marble replica of a bronze of the circle of Praxiteles, 4th century BC The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpents The Wrestlers, marble copy of a bronze Permamene original, 2nd or 3rd century BC Chimera - Etruscan art 8 Oil lamps Egyptian ptahmose, 18th dynasty Greek bronze torso Bust of Julius Caeser Roman silver shield Head of Antinous South Italian crater Etruscan jug Octagonal table with pietra dura top made for the Tribuna, designed by Jacopo Ligozzi and Bernardino Poccetti. Charles Loraine Smith (1751–1835) Richard Edgcumbe, later 2nd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (1764–1839) George, 3rd Earl Cowper (1738–89) Sir John Dick (1720–1804), British Consul at Leghorn Other Windsor, 6th Earl of Plymouth (1751–99) Johann Zoffany George Legge, Lord Lewisham, later 3rd Earl of Dartmouth (1755–1810) unknown young man Mr Gordon Hon. Felton Hervey (1712–73) Thomas Patch (1725-82), Painter Sir John Taylor Bt., (d. 1786) Sir Horace Mann (1706–86), British Consul in Florence George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea prob. Roger Wilbraham (1743-1829) Mr Watts Mr Doughty, travelling with Charles Loraine Smith Probably Thomas Wilbraham (b. 1751), brother of Roger The Medici Venus, Roman copy of a Greek original of the 2nd century BC James Bruce (1730–94), African explorer
Tribuna of the Uffizi by Johann Zoffany. Place cursor over artworks or persons to identify them.

List

Paintings

List of the paintings by wall, from top row, left to right

Left wall
Central wall
Right wall
Lower part

Sculptures and other

Today Medici's Ancient Roman statues are mostly in the main corridors of the Uffizi Gallery, except those which are still in the Tribuna, and except the smaller busts and statuettes (some antique, some pseudo-antique), owned by the National Archaeological Museum and permanently displayed at Villa Corsini a Castello, near Florence. Many of those painted by Zoffany are still to be identified, thou. Other antiquities (Etruscan, Egyptian, Greek) are mostly in the National Archaeological Museum. Some very few Renaissance pieces from the Tribuna are now in the Bargello Museum.

Shelves

From left:

Center
Lower

Persons shown

All the connoisseurs, diplomats and visitors to Florence portrayed are identifiable, making the painting a combination of the British 18th-century conversation piece or informal group portrait genre, with that of the predominantly Flemish 17th-century tradition of gallery views and wunderkammers. However, this inclusion of so many recognisable portraits led to criticism at the time 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."[4]

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Uffizi Tribuna (Zoffany).
  1. 1 2 The Hon Felton Harvey by John Faynam, National Trust, retrieved 4 June 2014
  2. 1 2 Tribuna of the Uffizi, Royal Collection, accessed 4 June 2014
  3. ↑ A key to the people shown, oneonta.edu, retrieved 17 October 2014
  4. ↑ Letter to Mann, 12 November, 1779
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