In the center of the painting Pietro Bastianelli, curator of the Uffizi Gallery, shows the Venus of Urbino by Titian to John Gordon,[nb 2] Thomas Patch who is apparently the man touching the Venus, but pointing to the figure of a male nude (believed to be a reference to Patch's homosexuality),[6] Sir John Taylor and Sir Horace Mann. The sitting man, looking back towards, is the Hon. Felton Hervey.°

Johann Zoffany, The Tribuna of the Uffizi (detail of the central group)
 (1772–8), Royal Collection, Windsor [1]

Johann Zoffany, The Tribuna of the Uffizi (detail of the group on the left)
 (1772–8), Royal Collection, Windsor [1]

The group around the Medici Venus include John Finch, Mr. Wilbraham (one of the sons of Roger Wilbraham of Nantwich), Mr. Watts, Mr. Doughty and, on the other side, Thomas Wilbraham (the second son) and James Bruce.

Johann Zoffany, The Tribuna of the Uffizi (detail of the group on the right)
 (1772–8), Royal Collection, Windsor [1]

Zoffany painted the picture in Florence expressly for Queen Charlotte, beginning in 1772. Much of the composition was completed the following year, but the artist continued working on it intermittently until late in 1777, making changes some of which are now only visible by X-ray. Notable among these changes is the inclusion of a self portrait on the left of the composition, where the artist has shown himself peering round the unframed canvas of the Virgin and Child by Raphael. For this purpose, it is almost as if the painter has abandoned his easel, partly visible in the lower right corner of the picture, and walked across or around the back of the room to partake in the discussion. The figures in the picture, all of whom are identifiable, fall into three groups: those on the left between the sculptures of Cupid and Psyche and Satyr with the Cymbals; those in the foreground, right of centre, gathered around the Venus d'Urbino by Titian; and those on the right around the Venus de' Medici. These portraits were meticulously painted by Zoffany and won widespread admiration, although apparently not from George III and Queen Charlotte, who claimed that such recognisable figures were inappropriate to the scene. In essence, however, Zoffany has amalgamated the traditional subject of a gallery view, much exploited by Flemish painters in the seventeenth century, with the conversation piece evolved by British painters during the eighteenth century, although recently other more cryptic levels of meaning have been sought in the picture.

Artworks shown

Zoffany's picture is not a historical record of the works displayed in the tribuna in the 1770s. Rather, it is an epitome of the works in the Medici collections he felt to be most important. To accomplish that goal, several works from other rooms in the Uffizi and seven paintings from the Galleria Palatina in the Palazzo Pitti were transferred to the Tribuna. To accomplish this, Zoffany requested the assistance of George, 3rd Earl Cowper, who had emigrated to Florence and Sir Horace Mann, who served as British diplomatic representative in Florence to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Two pictures by Raphael which Earl Cowper owned and hoped to sell to George III, and the Earl are depicted in Zoffany's painting. The unframed Samian Sibyl on the floor, acquired for the Medici collection in 1777, was a pendant to Guercino's Libyan Sibyl, recently bought by George III, and its inclusion may have been intended as a compliment to him.°

Sculptures and other

Many of the ancient sculptures painted by Zoffany can be identified, although few remain on their 18th century locations today. (The Medici's Roman statues stand in the main corridors of the Uffizi Gallery, except those which are still in the Tribuna. The smaller works are now in the collections of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale and the Museo Bargello in Florence).°