Beginning in 1764, the German-born painter Johan Zoffany received numerous commissions from the Hanoverian King George III and his consort, Queen Charlotte.
[1] In the summer of 1772, Zoffany left London for Florence, where he met Felton Hervey, an art collector and friend of the king and queen, who figures prominently in the painting.
The Tribuna of the Uffizi combines aspects of the British 18th-century conversation piece, or informal group portrait, with that of the predominantly Flemish 17th-century tradition of Wunderkammer and gallery views.
The first is reported to be Joseph Leeson, 2nd Earl of Milltown, even if his portrait does not match in age and resemblance those in the National Gallery of Ireland by Pompeo Batoni, and Valentine Knightley of Fawsley.
Further to 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.