Thursday, June 6, 2019

Zuccaro Drawings at the Royal Collection, Windsor

Taddeo Zuccaro
Sleeping Apostles for Agony in the Garden
before 1566
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Taddeo Zuccaro
Drapery Study with Standing Old Man holding a Book
before 1566
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Taddeo Zuccaro
Charlemagne confirming the union of Ravenna and other Territories of the Church
before 1566
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Taddeo Zuccaro
Group of Figures for Adoration of the Shepherds
before 1566
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

attributed to Taddeo Zuccaro
Group of Warriors
before 1566
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

attributed to Taddeo Zuccaro
Head of Bearded Man wearing a Gorget
before 1566
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

"The highly characterized Maniera accent of the later Francesco Salviati was rather the exception than the rule in Rome after the middle of the century.  The younger painters who emerged at that time began to manifest a different taste, more moderate and in general more evidently classicistic.  Of this younger generation the most gifted was Taddeo Zuccaro, unhappily short-lived (1529-1566); he was also the least restrictive of the younger painters in his style and the one still most attuned to high Maniera.  Born in the Marches, near Urbino, he came at the age of fourteen to Rome, where he received his training from painters of no consequence.  His true education was self-won, in particular by study of Raphael and the models of the Raphaelesque school of the first Maniera."

"Federico Zuccaro (1539-1609) inherited the commissions which Taddeo left unfinished at  his death in 1566.  Some thirteen years Taddeo's junior, Federico had been brought up by his brother and early became his helper.  He was also painting independently, however, well before his twentieth year.  . . .  Federico's skill of hand does not seem less than Taddeo's ; however, the mentality that moves the hand does not inspire it in the same way.  Federico's attitude towards what he represents seems more detached than Taddeo's, but he is more attached to habits of classicistic correctness and routine." 

– Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750, originally published in 1958, revised by Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu and reissued by Yale University Press in 1999

Federico Zuccaro after Michelangelo
Statue of Dawn in the Medici Chapel, Florence
ca. 1590-1600
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Federico Zuccaro
Demons in Grotesque Attitudes
before 1609
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Federico Zuccaro
Allegorical Figure of Peace
ca. 1567-69
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Federico Zuccaro
Figure seated at the Harpsichord, another listening
before 1609
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Federico Zuccaro
St Francis of Assisi receiving the Stigmata in a Mountain Gorge
before 1609
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Federico Zuccaro
Matthias and Barnabas praying over which is to replace Judas as Apostle
before 1609
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Federico Zuccaro
Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin and Apostles
before 1609
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Federico Zuccaro
Head of a Girl
before 1609
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain