The Allegorical Tomb of John Somers, Lord Chancellor Somers (1651-1716) (after Canaletto, Piazzetta and Cimaroli)
possibly Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Venice 1682 - Venice 1754)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1725
Materials
Oil on canvas (grisaille; arched top)
Measurements
838 x 533 mm (33 x 21 in)
Order this imageCollection
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
NT 1530111
Summary
Oil painting on canvas (grisaille [camaieu brun]; arched top), The Allegorical Tomb of John Somers, Lord Chancellor Somers (1651-1716), possibly Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Venice 1682 - Venice 1754), previously attributed to Domenico Maria Fratta (1696-1763). In the foreground lie the robe, mace, woolsack and purse of the Lord Chancellor of England, and the sword of the Sergeant-at-Arms; they allude to Somers's Lord Chancellorship (1697 - 1700) under William III. The tomb is surmounted by allegorical figures of Justice and Peace. In the centre of the composition a bishop is borne towards the tomb surrounded by a group of eccelsiastics - the Seven Bishops. This is a grisaille reduced version, after Canaletto with Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and Giovanni Battista Cimaroli, in the collection of the Earl of Plymouth (on loan to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), done for the purpose of having it engraved. The painting was one of a series of 24 large allegorical tomb paintings made to commemorate the leading figures in England of the Protestant cause after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. They commissioned between 1721 and 1729-30 by the Irishman Owen McSwiney, a bankrupt operatic impresario living in Venice and friends with Consul Joseph Smith, for the 2nd Duke of Richmond (10 in the Dining Room; sold in 19th century) at Goodwood House. The commission was spread amongst the Venetian and Bolognese artists of the time: Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Balestra, Imepriali, Pittoni, the young Canaletto and Francesco Monti, as was well as Piazzetta. Ralph Dutton once owned 'The Dorest Tomb', which had been in the collection of Kaiser Wilhlem III who had presented it to the North German-Lloyd line for the decoration of one of its flagships, The Leviathan but it was destroyed in the Hinton Ampner 1960 fire. The Isaac Newton tomb is in the Fitzwillam Museum, Cambridge whilst the Duke of Devonshire's is in the Barber Institute, Birmingham and two by Donato Creti are in the Government Art Collection, currently at the British Embassy in Rome.
Provenance
The Earl of Harewood (1882-1947); Christie's, 2 July 1965, lot 103; acquired by Ralph Dutton in 1965; bequeathed by Ralph Dutton, 8th Lord Sherborne (1898–1985)
Credit line
Hinton Ampner, The Ralph Dutton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
possibly Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Venice 1682 - Venice 1754), artist after Giovanni Battista Cimaroli (Salò 1687 - Venice 1771), artist after Antonio Canaletto (Venice 1697 - Venice 1768) , artist Domenico Maria Fratta (1696 - 1763), artist
References
Mazza 1976 Babara Mazza in 'La vicenda dei "Tombeaux des Princes"' Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'arte, 10 (1976), pp. 79-102 Canaletto, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989, under no. 13 The Settecento Italian Rococo and Early Neo-Classical Paintings 1700 - 1800, Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd, 4th November - 20th December 1987, no. 13 The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat. (co-eds. Jane Martineau and Andrew Robinson) Royal Academy, London, 15 September - 4 Deecember 1994 and National Gallery of Art, Washington,29 January - 23 April 1995, cat. no. 135