Johann Zoffany (1733–1810)
Self-Portrait with his daughter Maria Theresa, James Cervetto, and Giacobbe Cervetto
ca. 1780
Oil on canvas
Zoffany was fond of music and was part of a musical circle that included the composers Johann Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel, and the artists Thomas Gainsborough, Giovanni Battista Cipriani, and Francesco Bartolozzi. Zoffany is said to have owned a barge on which the friends played and listened to music as they floated up and down the Thames.
This painting celebrates the pleasures of art, music, and friendship. On the left, Zoffany himself embraces his daughter, Maria Theresa, with one arm and in the other hand holds aloft a palette and brushes. On the right, Giacobbe Cervetto, an Italian musician, listens to the playing of his pupil and illegitimate son, James Cervetto. Giacobbe Cervetto had come to England in 1728 as a dealer in instruments, but found performing music to be more lucrative. He played at Vauxhall Gardens every summer, and was solo cellist at the Drury Lane theater where he eventually succeeded David Garrick as manager. Cervetto became one of the most successful performers of his day, helping to popularize the cello, and was known for wearing on the forefinger of his bow hand a huge diamond, which flashed and sparkled as he played. He lived to be over one hundred years old.
YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, PAUL MELLON COLLECTION
B1977.14.88