Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zucchi, Antonio Pietro
ZUCCHI, ANTONIO PIETRO (1726–1795), painter, and a member of a family of artists, was born at Venice in 1726. He studied under his father Francesco, who was an engraver, his uncle Carlo Zucchi, a scene painter, Francesco Fontebasso, and Jacopo Amiconi. His earliest works were historical pictures in oils, and the church of San Jacopo at Venice possesses an altar-piece by him, but he subsequently devoted himself chiefly to landscape and decorative work. In 1754 he accompanied Robert Adam [q. v.] and Charles Louis Clérisseau [q. v.] 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 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 Caen Wood; 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 [q. v.] 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 died at Rome on 25 Dec. 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. Zucchi's ‘Death of St. Julian in the Convent of La Trappe’ and ‘Meeting of the Sisters at Reculver’ (from Keate's ‘Sketches from Nature’) were engraved by F. Haward, and his ‘Homer inspired by Calliope’ by A. Kauffmann and G. Zucchi. He designed the emblematical frontispiece to Adam's ‘Works in Architecture,’ engraved by Bartolozzi. Alessandro Longhi drew and engraved a portrait of Zucchi for his ‘Compendio delle Vite de' Pittori Veneziani Istorici,’ 1762.
Giuseppe Zucchi (fl. 1770), younger brother of Antonio, accompanied him to England, where he practised line engraving for some years. He was employed upon Adam's ‘Works in Architecture,’ and finished with the burin many of Angelica Kauffmann's etchings.
[Nagler's Künstler-Lexicon; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy; Gerard's Life of Angelica Kauffmann, 1892.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.287
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 424 | ii | 37 | Zucchi, Antonio P.: after at Reculver' insert (from Keate's Sketches from Nature) |