A caricature conversation depicting fourteen men gathered in a large room with a tessellated marble floor. At the left an Abbé, possibly Anton Maria Bisconi, is seated on a pile of folio volumes of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca. He holds a copy of Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno, a burlesque poem by various authors much in fashion at the time. Horace Mann is seated in a large ceremonial chair ornamented with the English Crown supported by the Lion and Unicorn. At the center of the composition, Lord Cowper sits with his back to the table of men gathered around Mann. Cowper converses with a man who may be the Earl of Moray. Six caricature portraits hang on the left and back walls of the room. The largest is a portrait of the artist Patch as a satyr. According to Watson, the chair and the servant’s livery suggest that the scene may be Mann’s house
Alternative Title:
Gathering at Sir Horace Mann's house
Description:
Title from 2005 Christie's appraisal. and Some identifications based on drawings published by Watson: F.J.B. Watson, “Thomas Patch (1725-1782): Notes on his Life Together with a Catalogue of his Known Works,“ Walpole Society, 1939-1940. XXVII, pp. 15-50.
