ZOCCHI Giuseppe Scelta di XXIV vedute delle principali contrade, piazze, chiese, e palazzi della città di Firenze.

Berlin Kat. 2700.

First edition of the greatest series of 18th-century views illustrating all the major sights of Florence. A magnificent copy bound in red morroco with the arms of of the Grand Dutchy of Tuscany.

The work consists of 24 engraved double-page views of Florence engraved by Corsi, Franceschini, Gabuggiani, Gregori, Papini, Muller, Marieschi, Monaco, Pazzi Pfeffel, Seuter, Sgrilli, Vasi and others after Zocchi’s original drawings and produced by the press of the Florentine printer Giuseppe Allegrini, which were commissioned and financed by the Marquis Andrea Gerini, and dedicated to Maria Theresa of Austria, whose husband was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Tuscany.

The son of a sand-digger from Fiesole, Zocchi ” was apprenticed to that important figure of the Florentine Baroque, Ranieri del Pace. On the latter’s death (in 1738), it was Gabburri who offered his support, as did the wealthy Marchese Andrea Gerini. Zocchi very probably studied perspective, which he enriched with trips to Rome, Bologna and to the North of Italy. He was awarded the prize for young students in the painting class at the Accademia in 1737, and in 1741 was admitted to the first year. Between 1739 and 1741, he must also have travelled to Venice, where he was Joseph Wagner’s student and where he learned the art of engraving. Gabburri had encouraged him in this field by having him draw the paintings of various artists in the churches in Florence to be used as basis for engravings. It must be emphasised, however, that although Zocchi is primarily known in the modern age as a draughtsman and view painter, he was in his own time pre-eminently a figure painter, even in his architectural and landscape works. Proof of this lies in Gabburri’s own words, when he mentions how Zocchi would pass from landscape painting “after having painted figures in oil, and architecture a fresco and in tempera”… “Zocchi’s most famous work is his two-fold series of engravings published in 1744, promoted and paid for by the Marchese Gerini, entitled Selection of XXIV Views of the principal Districts, Squares, Churches, and Palaces of the City of Florence and of Views of Villas and of Places in Tuscany, made after Zocchi’s own drawings. The complete set of drawings (probably the set owned by Zocchi’s patron, Gerini) consisting of seventy-seven sheets, is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York” (Roberto Contini for the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). 

The series, which was designed to “set before the eyes of curious observers, especially foreign, the noblest and charming views”, had such success that it very soon became a prototype for other similar editorial initiatives, undertaken in Rome, Venice, and other European cities.

This copy belonged to Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg, the Austrian architect, with a contemporary note “à Dno Architecto de Hochenberg / Dono accepi 1777.”
He was born in Vienna in 1733. After studying at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna, he undertook trips to Germany and Italy, where he worked for the time as a theatre decorator. In 1758 he became an honorary member of the newly founded Academy of Augsburg. He was protected by Count Wenzel Anton Kaunitz, Chancellor of Maria Theresia, so that in 1765 he was given the architectural direction of Schönbrunn Palace, which Maria Theresia redesigned after the death of her husband, Emperor Franz Stephan von Lorraine. His first work was the interior decoration of the Schönbrunner Schlosstheater, which was furnished by him in a still Rococo style. Hetzendorf was particularly important as a designer of the palace gardens, where some sculptures were designed according to his plans, such as the Neptune Fountain. The most striking building of the Schlossgarten, the Gloriette (1772-75), also comes from his planning. In 1783 he built the Palais Pallavicini (at that time Palais Fries) at Josephsplatz, opposite the Hofburg. In the following years Hetzendorf von Hohenberg dealt mainly with the transformation of churches, particularly the Minorite Church and the Augustine Church in Vienna, both originally Gothic churches, later changed to Baroque. He redesigned the interiors in Gothic fashion.

“Consistently celebrative and accomplished, this collection shows a city striving to maintain a placid and prosperous appearance; Zocchi’s limpid vision, similar to Carlevaris’ and Visentini’s interpretations of Venice, endow the city with cohesion and serenity.” (Millard)

Double-page title by J. G. Seuter after G. Magni, dedication by F. Morghen after Zocchi, 24 double-page views of Florence by J. A. Pfeffel, J. S. Muller, C. Gregori and others after Zocchi, the five plates by Sgrilli with the figures by Zocchi.

A magnificent copy.