Francesco Zuccarelli

Commissioned from the artist by Thomas Coke, (1754-1842) 1st Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall, Norfolk, payment of £80 recorded in 1758;

Probably the artist's sale, London, Prestage & Hobbs, 10 February 1762, lot 19 (as Voyage of the Turks to Mecca);

With the Heim Gallery, London, by 1981.

London, Heim Gallery, Summer Exhibition, 1981, no. 11;

London, Walpole Gallery, Tresaures of Italian Art, 19 April - 24 June 1988, no. 25.

H.C. Marillier, English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century, London 1930, pp. 94-5; 

M. Levey, 'Francesco Zuccarelli in England', in Italian Studies, vol. XIV, 1959, pp. 5-6;

F. Spadotto, Francesco Zuccarelli, Milan 2007, p. 144, cat. no. 254, reproduced p. 285, fig. 254.

The painting is lighter in tone and more luminous in colour than the catalogue illustration would suggest. The canvas has a relatively heavy lining however the paint surface appears to be in very good overall, ready to hang condition as can be seen in the catalogue illustration. There is no apparent damage or loss of paint visible to the naked eye except for two very old vertical creases in the peripheral areas to the left and right running through the back of the camel and through the camel trainer’s right hand probably caused by old folds; however these are only visible under a raking light. There is also an uneven craquelure in the varnish. Examination under ultraviolet reveals conservative retouching to the aforementioned creases and reveals some further scattered minor cosmetic retouching and infilling to the craquelure lower right and to the canvas edge upper centre. There is also a milky varnish overall. Overall the picture appears to be in good overall condition with minimal intervention. Offered in a grand gilt wood and plaster frame in good overall condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This picture is the last painting that relates to the series The Pilgrimage of Mecca, a set of tapestries woven by Paul Saunders, the last tapicier to run a tapestry-works in England before the nineteenth century revival. The cartoon was first woven independently of the series to replace an earlier representation of Asia in a set of Brussels tapestries of the Four Continents at Holkham Hall. The Holkham accounts record that on the 30 June 1758 Lord Leicester paid Zuccarelli the notable sum of £80 for the design, compared to the lesser rate of £53.5s paid to Saunders and his partner George Smith Bradshaw for the tapestries themselves, despite their enrichment with silver and gold thread.¹ This, and the fact that Edward Penny was later employed to make disposable copies of Zuccarelli’s cartoons for the weavers, clearly suggests that the artist’s designs were prized as independent works of art in their own right. The commission is thus all the more remarkable for the presence of what would appear to have been the present painting in the artist’s parting sale of 1762, which would suggest that he, and not Lord Leicester, retained ownership of the picture.²

Zuccarelli was the most highly regarded painter of Arcadian landscapes in the eighteenth century, particularly amongst the English, for whom so many of his works were painted. Born in Umbria in 1702, he trained as a figural painter under Pietro Nelli in Rome before abandoning this genre in favour of landscape painting. Following a stint in Venice, he moved to England in 1752 where he remained for ten years. This unusual subject, painted during this period, is an example of the vogue for oriental themes, which although already popular early in the century, were becoming increasingly fashionable from the 1740s. The most influential exponent of  Turquerie was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who went to Turkey in 1717 following the appointment of her husband as ambassador. Her collected letters while there, which included colourful accounts of Turkish life, were widely distributed in manuscript form before being printed upon her death in 1762. Zuccarelli’s foray into the exotic was a rare departure in terms of subject matter for the Italian artist. In the present work he seems to capitalise upon the opportunity, not only through an increase in scale but also through his use of a strong and vivid palette.

This picture was used as a model for part of a larger tapestry that formerly belonged to a descendant of Paul Saunders which is now housed in the Ulster Museum, Ireland.³ Complete or partial sets of the series Pilgrimage to Mecca, often arranged in different combinations, are in the possession of the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle and in the collection of the Earl of Egremont at Petworth House.⁴

1. H. C. Marillier, English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century, London 1930, p. 94, footnote 2;
2. See Heim Gallery, Summer Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, London 1981, cat. no. 11, upaginated;
3. See W.G. Thomson, Tapestry Weaving in England from the Earliest Times to the end of the XVIII Century, London 1914, p. 152, reproduced fig. 53;
4. Ibid, p. 159, fig. 59.