TADDEO ZUCCARO
1529-156 6
51 Scene from the History of the
Farnese Family
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, and brown wash,
squared in red chalk; H: 30.2 cm (n^7 /8Ín.); W: 27.5 cm
(io^7 /sin.)
87.00.5 2
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom left cor-
ner, collection mark of Giuseppe Vallardi (L. 1223);
(verso) inscribed Dzo in red chalk, di... Lucani in
brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Giuseppe Vallardi, Milan; private collec-
tion, Boston; art market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: Renaissance into Baroque: Italian Master
Drawings by the Zuccari, 1550-1600, National Academy
of Design, New York, March-April 1990, no. 36 (cat-
alogue by E. J. Mundy with the assistance of E. Ouru-
soff de Fernandez-Gimenez).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.WHEN FRANCESCO SALVIATI DIED IN 1563, HE WAS IN
the process of decorating the Sala dei Fasti Farnesiani in
the Palazzo Farnese, Rome. On his death the commission
was given to Taddeo Zuccaro, but work was interrupted
by the deaths of Cardinal Ranuccio Farnese (1565) and
Taddeo himself (1566). At that point Federico Zuccaro
carried the project to completion.
The Museum s drawing was identified by J. Gere as
a study by Taddeo for the small quadro riportato scene
above the window at the right side of the room.^1 Given
the program of the room and the presence of the Farnese
lilies on the shield carried by the boy at the left in both
drawing and painting, Gere noted that this must be a
scene from the history of the Farnese family. I. Cheney
proposed that the event depicted is Cardinal Albornoz
handing over the keys of the fortress of Valentano to the
Farnese in 1354, but this is uncertain.^2
In addition to the Getty drawing, there is another
squared study for the fresco, in the Hessisches Landes-
muséum, Darmstadt (inv. AE 1562). It was attributed b
Gere and Cheney to Federico,^3 but more recently, Gere
has been inclined to give it to Taddeo.^4 In any event the
Darmstadt drawing is closer than the Museum's to the
fresco in all points in which the latter two differ. Whereas
the Getty study shows five figures at the right standing
in front of architecture and a curtain with a distant land-
scape, the Darmstadt drawing and the fresco each have
three figures at the right, no curtain, and a city view in
the distance. Equally, in the latter two renderings the fig-
ure at the right is clearly a cardinal with a key in his left
hand, while the Getty drawing does not show him wear-
ing identifiable regalia but holding what may be a book
or some documents in his left hand and what appears to
be a baton in his right. This may suggest that at an earlier
stage Taddeo was asked to show a different scene. Never-
theless the essential components of the fresco, established
in the Museum's drawing, were later defined in more fi-
nal form in the Darmstadt sheet and then in the fresco by
the workshop.1. Letter to a former owner, undated.- I. Cheney, "Les premières décorations: Daniele da Volterra,
Salviati et les frères Zuccari," Le palais Farnèse (Rome, 1981),
vol. i, pt. i, p. 263. - J. Gere, Taddeo Zuccaro: His Development Studied in His Draw-
ings (Chicago, 1969), p. 139, no. 26; Cheney (note 2), p. 263,
n. 57. - Letter to G. Goldner, June 1987.
130 ITALIAN SCHOOL • ZUCCARO