Pericles and Socrates listening to Aspasia
Antonio Zucchi, RA (Venice 1726 - Rome 1796)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1767
Materials
Oil on canvas
Place of origin
London
Collection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773414
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Pericles and Socrates listening to Aspasia by Antonio Zucchi, RA (Venice 1726 – Rome 1796), 1767. Aspasia sits with a greyhound to her right, in the left foreground. A man, in golden and red, sits on her left. To the right sits an older bearded man, the philosopher, in brown, on a red velvet seat with his right foot on a stool. Aspasia was the companion of the statesman Pericles with whom she had a son. According to Plutarch, her house became an intellectual centre in Athens, attracting the most prominent writers and thinkers, including the philosopher Socrates.
Provenance
Commissioned by Robert Child (1739 - 1782); and thence by descent Given to the National Trust with Osterley Park by George Francis Child-Villiers (1910–1998), 9th Earl of Jersey in 1949
Credit line
Osterley Park, The Jersey Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Antonio Zucchi, RA (Venice 1726 - Rome 1796), artist