A small audience sitting on benches on a tribune next to the equestrian statue of Cosimo I de' Medici in Piazza della Signoria, watching a military parade of the guards of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorena (1765-1790), son of the Empress Maria Theresa of Habsburg and brother of Joseph II. The soldiers, forming an L-shaped cordon and led by four battalion officers, are recognizable by their tricorns and the bayonets. At the center of the square, under the grand building of Palazzo Vecchio, stands a troop of drummers. Figures in the the foreground include a group of cavalrymen bearing a banner and followed by a cart on the right; a lady and gentleman waiting for a landau carriage at center; and a figure, maybe a soldier on look-out, watching the scene in Palazzo Uguccioni's shadow on the left
Description:
Title and artist attribution from dealer's description. and Date based on artist's death date.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)
Subject (Name):
Piazza della Signoria (Florence, Italy), and Palazzo vecchio (Florence, Italy),
Subject (Topic):
Plazas, Equestrian statues, Military parades & ceremonies, Spectators, and Carriages & coaches
"Portrait of William Wilberforce, MP, half-length seated at a table on which stand the 'Parliamentary Register' and 'Debates', holding folded in his hand the 'Slave Trade Abolition Bill'."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from lettered state., Artist and printmaker from statements of responsibility on lettered state: Painted by the late John Russell Esqr. R.A., crayon painter to the King, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York ; engraved by James Heath A.R.A., Proof before all letters. For a lettered state with the imprint "Published Novr. 26, 1807, by William Faden, Geographer to the King &c., Charing Cross, John Hatchard, Bookseller to the Queen, 190 Piccadilly, and William Russell, 17 Newman Street," see British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: 1899,0805.4., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Window mounted to 51 x 36 cm., Mounted opposite page 512 (leaf numbered '107' in pencil) in volume 3 of an extra-illustrated copy of: Moore, T. Memoirs of the life of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan., and Later ink annotation below print, on mounting sheet: William Wilberforce (Slave Abolitionist).
Title devised by cataloger., Unsigned; artist unidentified., Place and date of production from Annie Burr Lewis's note that was pasted to the back of former frame: This is a French 18th century "pin prick" picture., and Temporary local subject terms: Pin prick (pouncing) -- Women in literature and art.