ZUCCHI, Antonio

Italian painter, member of a family of artists. He studied under his father Francesco, who was an engraver, his uncle Carlo Zucchi, a scene painter, Francesco Fontebasso, and Jacopo Amigoni. In his early works he imitated Amigoni’s manner and hazy style of colouring. His earliest works were historical pictures in oils, and the church of San Jacopo at Venice possesses an altarpiece by him, but he subsequently devoted himself chiefly to landscape and decorative work.

In 1754 he accompanied Robert Adam (1728-1792) and Charles Louis Clérisseau in their travels through Italy and Dalmatia, sketching architectural remains, and some of his drawings were engraved in Adam’s ‘Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian at Spalatro,’ 1764. In Italy, he would have gained a deeper knowledge of the Neo-classical style.

In 1766 Zucchi was invited to England by Adam, who employed him on the interior decorations of many of the great mansions erected or altered by him, including Luton House, Syon House, Osterley, and Kenwood; also some of the houses in the Adelphi, London. His works of this class are agreeable in colour but poor and mannered in design; he was assisted in many of them by Angelica Kauffmann and her father. Zucchi was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1770, in which year and also in 1771, 1778, and 1779, he exhibited pictures of classical subjects.

In July 1781 he married Angelica Kauffmann, and with her returned to Italy, where the remainder of his life was spent. He did little painting, dedicating himself instead to the administration of the considerable family fortune.

Zucchi died at Rome on 25 December 1795, and was buried in the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, where there is a monument to his memory and that of his celebrated wife.