Enrico Lucchese

L’album di caricature di Anton Maria Zanetti alla Fondazione Giorgio Cini

lineadacqua edizioni, Venice, 2015

An art connoisseur with many artist friends, Anton Maria Zanetti di Girolamo (1680-1767) was also an amateur artist. He is well-known for his album of caricatures, 350 unforgettable portraits from the variegated world of 18th-century Venice. e subjects range from opera divas to ordinary people, all mocked without distinction. e fresh, lively drawings reveal Zanetti’s talent as an original caricaturist. Donated in 1968 by Vittorio Cini to mark the 15th anniversary of the Institute of Art History, the album has recently been the subject of a study, thanks to the crucial support of Save Venice Inc., with the participation of the Francis Haskell Memorial Fund. The study has reconstructed the formation of the collection, comparing it with similar albums owned by Consul Smith (Windsor Castle, Royal Collections) and Francesco Algarotti (Jerusalem, Israel Museum).

Dedicated to the memory of W. R. Rearick, the book also describes many new developments: attributions of caricatures to Marco Ricci, the chronology and assembling of the drawings, the identification of some subjects and of the late 18th-century annotator, and connections with the figurative arts, theatre and music, which shed new light on Zanetti and his cosmopolitan circle as well as on Venice.