A Country Wedding - Feast c.1740
Oil on canvas | 96.5 x 121.9 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 407506
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At the left is a large table, covered with a cloth and spread with food. Surrounding the table are groups of seated and standing figures in rustic costume, some holding glasses. At the centre of the composition a couple stand; the man gestures to the right foreground, where another couple are seated with a dog looking on. In the distance various buildings can be made out, including a temple, and a large mountain on the horizon beyond.
The painting is a pendant to Country Dance (RCIN 404061) and includes some of the same figures. The subject of rural merrymaking is an unusual one for Zuccarelli. It suggests an awareness of French eighteenth-century paintings by rural genre artists such as Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Antoine Watteau, which were probably known to him through engravings. Both works have suffered from wear and been somewhat obscured by varnish. It is also likely that they have been cut down at the sides and slightly added to at the bottom. The slight awkwardness of some of the figures suggests that these are early works, dating from 1740 or possibly earlier. A later pair of paintings by Zuccarelli of the same subjects but with some compositional differences are known through two oval engravings which were executed collaboratively by Vivares and Bartolozzi and published in London in November 1775.Provenance
Acquired in 1762 by George III from Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice (Italian List nos 183-4); ; recorded in the Queen’s Drawing-Room at Kew in 1805 (no 2)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
96.5 x 121.9 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
119.7 x 146.0 x 13.3 cm (frame, external)