European Drawings - 1, Catalogue of the Collections

FEDERICO ZUCCARO

55 The Submission of the

Emperor Frederick Barbarossa

to Pope Alexander III

Pen and brown ink, brown wash, and black chalk on two
attached sheets of paper; H: 55.4 cm (2iV 4 in.); W: 53.9
cm (2 1 Mi in.)
83.00.19 6
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom, collection mark
of Sir Peter Lely (L. 2092).
PROVENANCE: Sir Peter Lely, London; Sir William
Forbes, Pitsligo; by descent (sale, Christie's, London,
April 12, 1983, lot 10).
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Ward, Review of Master Drawings
from the Woodner Collection, Burlington Magazine 126 , no.
973 (April 1984), p. 251.

IN 1582 FEDERICO ZUCCARO BEGAN WORK ON THE

painting of this subject for the Sala del Gran Consiglio of

the Palazzo Ducale, Venice, which was to replace Tin-

toretto's version destroyed in the fire of 1577. As was first

noted by J. Gere,^1 the earliest surviving study for the

painting, in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York

(inv. 1973.29),^2 shows the scene from the vantage point of

the Piazzetta looking toward the Torre del'Orologio,

though it does contain certain elements of the final com-

position. A second drawing, in a private collection, Lon-

don,^3 established the composition in its final format, with

a view to the Piazzetta, San Marco at the left, and many

details, such as the baldachin, employed in the painting.

This design was then elaborated in a large drawing in the

Woodner collection, New York.^4 The Museum's draw-

ing is comparable to the Woodner sheet in almost every

respect excepting the notable pentimento in the situation

of the Palazzo Ducale in the latter composition. It is im-

possible to compare them in terms of handling since that

drawing is very damaged. A copy of it with its pentimento

is at Christ Church, Oxford (inv. I38o).^5 The painting

was only completed in 1603, with a number of details

different from the various preparatory drawings. The

present writer recently saw a further compositional

drawing for this painting in a French private collection

that would fit into the sequence of studies just before the

Woodner sheet.

1. "The Lawrence-Phillips-Rosenbach 'Zuccaro Album,'"
   Master Drawings 8, no. 2 (1970), p. 132, no. 21.


2. C. Denison et al., European Drawings: 1375-1825 (New
   York, 1981), no. 27.


3. Gere (note i), fig. i.


4. G. Goldner, Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection,
   exh. cat.,J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1983, no. 25.


5. J. Byam Shaw, Drawings by Old Masters at Christ Church Ox-
   ford (Oxford, 1976), no. 553, pi. 301.

132 ITALIAN SCHOOL • ZUCCARO