National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Memorial to Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Shortly before 1722, Owen McSwiny, a bankrupt Irishman who had settled in Italy to escape his creditors, commissioned twenty-four large canvases from prominent Venetian and Bolognese painters as a commercial venture. By profession a theater impresario, he concocted this series of allegorical monuments commemorating recently deceased British monarchs and aristocrats, hoping that their wealthy heirs might purchase the works. McSwiny's "Tombs," as they came to be called, proved to be unintelligible; no one, not even the artists who painted them, ever had a clear notion of what the pictures represented.

This ornate and fanciful memorial, for example, alludes only vaguely to the subject's naval career. The admiral himself does not appear, nor does the shield in the right foreground bear his exact coat-of-arms. Only the fountain hints at the maritime theme with its ancient ships' prows and rudders, statues of tritons riding dolphins, and a bas-relief of Neptune, god of the sea.

The Shovell canvas is a collaboration by Marco Ricci, who contributed the picturesque landscape and theatrical architecture, and his uncle Sebastiano Ricci, who painted the figures and statuary. The two Riccis' use of fluffy textures and decorative colors marks the emerging rococo style.

Inscription

lower left on stone: B. / M. RICCI / Faciebant (Bastianoand Marco Ricci made it)

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Commissioned by Owen McSwiny for Charles Lennox, 2d duke of Richmond [1701-1750], Goodwood, Sussex, and Somerset House, London, by 1726; by descent to Charles Lennox, 4th duke of Richmond [1764-1819]; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 26 March 1814, no. 48); bought by P. Hill.[1] Sir Richard Colthurst, Cork, Ireland. (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, London, and Zurich);[2] purchased 1953 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] The circumstances of commission and the painting's sale are discussed in the NGA systematic catalogue entry (Diane De Grazia and Eric Garberson, Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Washington, D.C., 1996: 237-242). Martha Hepworth of the Getty Provenance Index provided an annotated copy of the 1814 Goodwood sale catalogue and has identified P. Hill "almost certainly" as the London dealer Philip Hill, about whom little is known (letter of 8 June 1990, NGA curatorial files).

[2] Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century, London, 1973: 132, and Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:404. According to a typed notation in the NGA curatorial files of a letter from David Koetser of 23 October 1954, Koetser acquired the painting through an agent working for an old English family whose name he would not divulge to Koetser.

Exhibition History

1994
The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museo del Settecento Veneziano - Ca'Rezzonico, Venice, 1994-1995, no. 37 (London and Washington), no. 7 (Venice), repro.

Bibliography

1926
Voss, Hermann. "Studien zur venezianischen Vedutenmalerei des 18. Jahrhunderts." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft (1926): 37.
1932
Arslan, Wart. "Appunti su Magnasco, Sebastiano e Marco Ricci." Bollettino d'Arte 26 (1932): 217-218.
1955
Pallucchini, Rodolfo. "Studi Ricceschi (II) Contributo a Marco." Arte Veneta 9 (1955): 192, 194-196, fig. 225.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Colllection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 148-151, no. 58, repro.
1957
Blunt, Anthony, and Edward Croft-Murray. Venetian Drawings of the XVII & XVIII Centuries at Windsor Castle. London, 1957: 31.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 231, repro.
1960
Pallucchini 1960, 40, fig. 100.
1961
Seymour 1961 (Kress), 158, repro. pl. 150, color repro. pl. 151
1962
Boyce, Benjamin. "Baroque into Satire: Pope's Frontispiece for the 'Essay on Man'." Criticism 4 (1962): 23, 25, fig. 10.
1962
Croft-Murray, Edward. Decorative Painting in England 1587-1837. 2 vols. London, 1962; Feltham, 1970: 2:24, 241, no. 21.
1963
Haskell, Francis. Patrons and Painters. London, 1963: 289 (2nd ed., 1985).
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 115.
1967
Burda, Hubert. Die Ruine in den Bildern Hubert Roberts. Munich, 1967: 35.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 102, repro.
1973
Jaffé, Michael. European Fame of Sir Isaac Newton. Exh. cat. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1973: 14.
1973
Kaufmann, C. M. Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Foreign Paintings. 2 vols. London, 1973: 1:239.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 131-133, fig. 259-260.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 306, repro.
1976
Daniels, Jeffery. L'opera completa di Sebastiano Ricci. Milan, 1976: 127, no. 426, repro.
1976
Daniels, Jeffery. Sebastiano Ricci. Hove, 1976: 153-154, no. 531, fig. 55.
1976
Daniels, Jeffery. "Sebastiano Ricci in England." Atti del Congress internazionale di studi su Sebastiano Ricci e il suo tempo. Milan, 1976.
1976
Mazza, Barbara. "La viecenda dei 'Tombeaux des Princes': Matrici, storia e fortuna della serie Swiny tra Bologna e Venezia." Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Arte 10 (1976): 90-91, no. 3, fig. 7.
1978
Works by Sebastiano Ricci from British Collections. Exh. cat. P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London, 1978: unpaginated, no. 21, fig. 21a.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:402-406, II:pl. 286, 286A.
1983
Knox, George. "The Tombs of Famous Englishmen as Described in the Letters of Owen McSwiny to the Duke of Richmond." Arte Veneta 27 (1983): 231, no. 4.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 345, no 473, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 352, repro.
1991
Adolphs, Volker. "Der Impressario als Auftraggeber. Owen McSwiny und die 'Tombeaux des Princes grand capitaines et autres illustres." In Venedigs Ruhm im Norden. Exh. cat. (2 venues). Hannover, 1991: 43, 48-49, 51, fig. 13.
1991
Scarpa Sonino, Annalisa. Marco Ricci. Milan, 1991: 34, 137, no. 112, fig. 312, color pl. 33.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 114, repro. (not in 1995 rev. ed.).
1992
Knox, George. Giovanni Piazzetta 1682-1754. Oxford, 1992: 176, fig. 125.
1994
The Glory of Venice. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museo del Settecento Veneziano - Ca'Rezzonico, Venice; Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, 1994-1995: 489, cat. 37, color repro. 110.
1996
De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 237-242, color repro. 239.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 244-245, no. 196, color repro.

Related Works

Related Resources

  • Event Type
    Event Name
    March 1–June 1
    Mon, Tues, and Wed at 1:00
    March 5, 2012 at 2:00
    March 7, 2012 at 4:00
    East Building, Auditorium
    Name of docent
    image:
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum
    60 minutes
    Registration for this event begins on April 1, 2012 at noon.
    Register for this event
    Download the program notes (100k)
  • Self-Guided Tour
    Italian Collection
    image:
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum