(b Modena, 23 May 1681; d Rome, 22 Feb 1767). Italian painter. He was a pupil in Modena of Francesco Stringa, a native of the city, with whom Zoboli was to work in 1708 on a number of wall paintings (destr.) in the Palazzo Ducale in Modena. After Stringa’s death in 1709, Zoboli moved to Bologna, to the workshop of Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole, where he remained until 1715, dividing his time between his apprenticeship and the creation of a number of canvases for clients in Modena. In 1714 he executed his first documented work, an altarpiece of the Virgin and Child amidst Angels Being Worshipped by SS Geminian and Antony, for the confraternity of S Maria degli Angeli at Spilamberto. In the spring of 1715 Zoboli moved to Rome, where, ten years later, he became a member of the Accademia di S Luca. In Rome he carried out a number of important commissions for the Jesuits, the King of Portugal and the Polish court, while painting several canvases for churches and private families in Modena. The paintings created during the period of Zoboli’s maturity (from the 1720s to the late 1740s) can be divided into two distinct categories. The first comprises commissions of a religious nature, including altarpieces that show clear links with the painting of Carlo Maratti and the works of Emilian artists active in Rome during the previous century, including Reni, Francesco Albani and Domenichino. The second category contains works of extraordinary modernity, which were created for a sophisticated clientele who commissioned numerous versions of the Death of Caesar and the Death of Pompey. The latter works anticipate the doctrines of Neo-classicism (the first version of the Death of Caesar dates from 1724) and reveal an awareness of the style of portraiture practised by Pompeo Batoni.