David Garrick as Jaffier, Susannah Maria Cibber as Belvidera in Venice Preserved, or The Plot Discovered

Johann Zoffany painted David Garrick as Jaffier and Susannah Maria Cibber as Belvidera around 1762, depicting the two greatest actors of the Georgian stage in Thomas Otway's Venice Preserved — a tragic drama of political conspiracy and personal loyalty that was one of the most frequently performed plays of the eighteenth century. Garrick and Mrs Cibber were the leading performers at Drury Lane and their partnership in tragedy gave them a combined cultural authority that few performers in later centuries would match. Zoffany's theatrical portrait documents a specific performance with the combination of portrait accuracy and theatrical immediacy that was his specialty.

Zoffany captures the dramatic moment with his characteristic precision, rendering the actors' expressions and gestures with documentary accuracy. The theatrical lighting and careful stage setting create a vivid record of mid-18th-century dramatic performance.