Francesco Zuccarelli

Italian Rococo Era Painter, 1702-1788. He was born at Pitigliano, in southern Tuscany, where he initially apprenticed with Paolo Anesi. He then worked in Rome with Giorgio Morandi, Pietro Nelli, and perhaps Andrea Locatelli. In 1732, he settled Venice, he became famous as one of the most desired landscape painters of the classicizing 18th century. Having visited England on a previous occasion, he was induced by some patrons to return there in 1752, remaining until 1773, when he settled in Florence, where he died in 1788. Zuccarelli, who was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy, enjoyed the patronage of royalty and of many wealthy English collectors, for whom he executed his principal works-generally a landscape or vedute with classic ruins and small figures. His paintings often bear a mark representing a pumpkin, a pictorial representation of his name, which signifies little pumpkin. He was reputed to have trained Giuseppe Zais, and influenced Vittorio Amadeo Cignaroli.