Catullus writing an Epitaph for the Death of his Mistress’s Bird
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 773415
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Catullus writing an Epitaph for the Death of his Mistress’s Bird by Antonio Zucchi, RA (Venice 1726 – Rome 1796), 1767. Right of chimneypiece. Lesbia, in white reclines on a low bed coveerd in red leaning against a cushion with blue drapery below her which a potto angel lefts behind her on her left, in the centre. A dead bird lies on the corner of the bed, in the foreground. Catullus sits on the right with an open book on the table on the right, with another putto gesticulating. The Roman poet Catullus was born around 84 BC to a wealthy family from Verona but he soon settled into the fashionably elegant and educated circles in Rome and fell in love with a rich married woman, Clodia, whom he refers to as 'Lesbia' in many of his poems. See also painting at Nostell NT 960062.1. Lugete, o Veneres Cupidinesque, et quantum est hominum venustiorum: passer mortuus est meae puellae, passer, deliciae meae puellae, quem plus illa oculis suis amabat. nam mellitus erat suamque norat ipsam tam bene quam puella matrem, nec sese a gremio illius movebat, sed circumsiliens modo huc modo illuc ad solam dominam usque pipiabat. qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum illuc, unde negant redire quemquam. at vobis male sit, malae tenebrae Orci, quae omnia bella devoratis: tam bellum mihi passerem abstulistis o factum male! o miselle passer! tua nunc opera meae puellae flendo turgiduli rubent ocelli. [Mourn, Oh Venuses and Cupids And all the company of more loving men! The Sparrow of my girl has died, the sparrow, the delight of my girl, Whom that girl loved more than her own eyes. For it was honey sweet and it knew its own mistress just as well as a girl her mother, and did not move itself from that girl's lap, but jumping around at one time here, at another time there, it used to constantly chirp to its mistress alone. He now goes along that dark road to that place from where they say nobody returns. but may things be bad for you, wicked shades of Orcus, who devour all beautiful things: so beautiful a sparrow you have taken from me, Oh evil deed! Oh unfortunate little sparrow! now thanks to your effort the swollen little eyes of my girl are red from her crying].
Provenance
Given to the National Trust with Osterley Park by George Francis Child-Villiers (1910–1998), 9th Earl of Jersey in 1949
Makers and roles
Antonio Zucchi, RA (Venice 1726 - Rome 1796), artist