Imaginary Tomb of the Duke of Devonshire

This 1725 Imaginary Tomb of the Duke of Devonshire at the Barber Institute demonstrates Ricci's engagement with English aristocratic patronage even after his return to Venice. William Cavendish, the second Duke of Devonshire, had been among Ricci's English patrons, and this commemorative capriccio—an imaginary monument in a classical setting—was likely commissioned as a memorial tribute. The work belongs to the commemorative capriccio genre in which real persons are honored through elaborate classical allegory set in invented architectural landscapes. Ricci's sustained relationship with English collectors, maintained through works sent from Venice after his departure, documents the transnational nature of early eighteenth-century aristocratic art patronage.

The imaginary monument is rendered with architectural precision within a luminous atmospheric setting, Ricci's decorative sensibility transforming the commemorative subject into an exercise in classical-Venetian visual splendor.