Marco Ricci

Venetian, 1676 - 1729

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Italian painter, engraver and stage designer (1676-1730)

Explore Selected Works

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Marco Ricci, Two Men Penitent in the Wilderness, 1730, etching on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2001.26.1

Two Men Penitent in the Wilderness

Marco Ricci · 1730 · etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.26.1

Marco Ricci, A Fortified Village along a River, 1727/1729, pen and brown ink over traces of graphite; Zanetti mount, Gift of Mrs. Rudolf J. Heinemann, 1988.26.1

A Fortified Village along a River

Marco Ricci · 1727/1729 · pen and brown ink over traces of graphite; Zanetti mount ·  Accession ID  1988.26.1

Marco Ricci, A Capriccio of Roman Ruins, 1727/1729, gouache on kidskin, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1982.38.2

A Capriccio of Roman Ruins

Marco Ricci · 1727/1729 · gouache on kidskin ·  Accession ID  1982.38.2

We look slightly down at an ornate fountain in a dirt and stone courtyard surrounded by about two dozen people, many of whom look at or gesture toward the fountain in this vertical painting. Most of the people have pale, peachy skin but one man, near the lower center, has dark brown skin and short black hair. The fountain has a broad, shell-shaped base filled with glimmering, aquamarine-blue water. In the basin, and as if carved from gray stone, two muscular, nude men blow horns as they ride stylized dolphins, which spout water into the pool. Two more people wearing robes sit atop a tall, pedestal-shaped form that rises from the back of the shell base. The person to our left holds aloft a bowl and the other holds a vessel on her lap as she turns to look up and behind her at the pinnacle of the fountain. There, a person, also carved from stone, sits on a throne and points down with one hand while the other, closer to us, rests on a short column with three flame-like protrusions up each side. He leans back against a short, curving ship with an oar coming through a porthole to our right. A nude, chubby, baby-like cherub straddles the rudder like a horse to our right. The sun falls down the front of the fountain, especially highlighting the middle tier and bottom shell-shaped basin, and it illuminates the people gathered around and near its base. One man to our left kneels on the edge of the basin and dips one hand in, as several others stand around it and look up at or point toward it. Most of the people wear robes, cloaks, and tunics in mustard yellow, tomato red, peach, white, and royal or light blue. A few vignettes draw the eye, including two men wearing chains on their ankles, are sprawled in shadow in the lower left corner of the composition. In that same cluster, two men stand and gesture toward the fountain while another sits at their feet. Nearby, the man with brown skin sits in front of a light-skinned man wearing a turban, a striped tunic, and a short sword hanging from his belt. The turbaned man stands with his back to us and rests his right hand on the handle of a pointed axe, using it like a cane. To our right, a person wearing an armor breastplate under a ruby-red cloak stands next to a balding man who also points up at the fountain. A young man wearing a lemon-yellow suit sits on a fallen block in the lower right corner of the composition, holding a board on his lap and presumably sketching the fountain, as a man wearing sapphire blue looks on. More people walk toward the fountain down in front of a gate to our right of the fountain. Beyond, plants and vegetation grow among ruins with columns, a stone obelisk, and a tall narrow pyramid. Pale pink clouds float in the pastel blue sky above. The artists signed their names as if written on the face of a stone block near the lower left: “B.” and “M.” next to “RICCI Faciebant.”
Sebastiano Ricci, Marco Ricci, Memorial to Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell, 1725, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.58

Memorial to Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell

Sebastiano Ricci, Marco Ricci · 1725 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.58

Marco Ricci, A Stormy Landscape, c. 1725, gouache on kidskin backed with paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund and Gift of David Tunick, 1980.13.1

A Stormy Landscape

Marco Ricci · c. 1725 · gouache on kidskin backed with paper ·  Accession ID  1980.13.1

Marco Ricci, Landscape with Classical Ruins, 1720s, etching, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1975.30.3

Landscape with Classical Ruins

Marco Ricci · 1720s · etching ·  Accession ID  1975.30.3

Marco Ricci, Wilderness Landscape with Two Monks, etching on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1997.12.1

Wilderness Landscape with Two Monks

Marco Ricci · · etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1997.12.1

Marco Ricci, Cattle and Figures at a Farmyard Stream, etching on blue laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1983.82.1

Cattle and Figures at a Farmyard Stream

Marco Ricci · · etching on blue laid paper ·  Accession ID  1983.82.1

Marco Ricci, The Mall from Saint James' Park, 1720s?, gouache on laid paper, Gift of Janet and David Bruce, 2005.104.2

The Mall from Saint James' Park

Marco Ricci · 1720s? · gouache on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2005.104.2

Marco Ricci, Capriccio of Antique Ruins with Men Gazing at a Classical Orator, 1720s, etching on laid paper [working proof], Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2005.28.2

Capriccio of Antique Ruins with Men Gazing at a Classical Orator

Marco Ricci · 1720s · etching on laid paper [working proof] ·  Accession ID  2005.28.2

Bibliography

1771

  • Zanetti, Anton Maria. Della pittura veneziana e delle oper pubbliche de' veneziani maestri. 1771. Reprint. Venice, 1972: 442-443.

1963

  • Pilo, Giuseppe Maria and Rodolfo Pallucchini. Marco Ricci. Exh. cat. Palazzo Sturm, Bassano del Grappa. Venice, 1963.

1975

  • Bolaffi 9 (1975): 380-384.

1988

  • Delneri, Annalia. "Marco Ricci." In Capricci veneziani del Settecento. Edited by Dario Succio. Turin, 1988: 128-156.

1991

  • Scarpa Sonino, Annalisa. Marco Ricci. Milan, 1991.

1993

  • Succi, Dario, and Annalia Delneri. Marco Ricci e il paesaggio veneto del settecento. Exh. cat. Palazzo Crepadona, Belluno. Milan, 1993.

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: 219-220.