Giuseppe Zocchi (1711–1767) was an Italian painter and engraver best known for his powerful views of the city of Florence. He became a painter of historical scenes and landscapes and an engraver of his own and other artists’ works. Most important to his development was the patronage of the noble Gerini family for whom he decorated the magnificent houses and castles around Florence. The Marchese Andrea Gerini commissioned Zocchi to record all the famous Florentine landmarks, which he did in a series of drawings, now in New York's Pierpont Morgan Library. From 1750 onward, Zocchi worked with the Galleria dei lavori di pietre dure, where he was salaried as the official engraver to the workshop from 1754 until his death, supplying drawings and models, mostly for the workshop's principal commissioner, the Emperor Francis Stephen of Habsburg Lorraine. During his many travels he also painted the greatest landscapes of the regions through which he passed and he left two excellent series of topographical images of Italy in the eighteenth century. One series of engravings consists of 25 vedute under the title “Scelta of XXIV vedute delle principali contrade, piazze, chiese, e palazzi della citta di Firenze”,which were issued in 1744; the other series consists of 50 vedute under the tile “Vedute delle ville e di altri luoghi della Toscana”.
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