Federico ZUCCARO (San'Angelo in Vado 1540/41- Rome 1609) - Lot 7

Federico ZUCCARO (San'Angelo in Vado 1540/41- Rome 1609) The Annunciation with God the Father and the Holy Spirit surrounded by a cloud of angels in the sky, the scene being surrounded by the representation of the principal invocations of the litanies of the Virgin, c. 1566 Pen and brown ink over black pencil, brown wash Half-moon shape: 29 x 43.5 cm Latin inscriptions in the drawing for the litanies: "Et ungetur sanctus sanctor"; "De fructu ventus ponam super sedem tuam"; "Ecce virgo poncipiet"; "Femina circun dabit virum"; "In semine tuo bene dicentu onesgentes". And under the Holy Spirit: "Nomen Elusiesum Et Vocabis". Inscription on reverse: "Frederico Zuccaro" in pen and black ink and "N3212". Paper eagle watermark, close to Briquet 207, Rome 1573-74 Formerly folded in eight, traces of wetness at bottom right and top, small tear on right edge (2 cm) Provenance : Former Duval Le Camus collection (1814-1878), stamped lower right (L.1441) Related works: - Another overall drawing for this fresco, from Vasari and then Jabach, is kept at the Musée du Louvre (Inv. 4539) (see, among others, the exhibition catalog "Collections de Louis XIV", Paris, 1977, ed. des musées nationaux, n°82, repr. p.112) - Engraving by Cornelis Cort of the destroyed fresco, similar to the drawing in the Louvre (see C. Acidini Luchinat, "Taddeo e Federico Zuccari", Milan, 1998, ed. Jandi Sapi , tome I, p.256, repr.). - Two drawings for the group of angels on the right are in the National Gallery in Washington and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (opus quoted above, fig.59-60, p.256). - One painting copies the fresco or the engraving after the fresco (opus quoted above, fig.62, p.257); another derives from the fresco (fig.61, p.255). Our unpublished drawing is a splendid preliminary project with numerous variants for the fresco painted in 1566 in a chapel of the Jesuit church of the Roman College, Santa Maria Annunziata, in Rome. The decoration could occupy the apse vault in the main chapel. Vasari describes it as follows: "We see a choir of innumerable angels and resplendent lights, with God the Father sending the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin, and the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel, a scene framed by six magnificent larger-than-life prophets" (Vasari, "Vie de Taddeo Zuccaro", ed. sous la direction d'André Chastel, Berger-Levrault, 1985, tome 9, p.136). The contrast between the wash and the white paper reserves is a perfect illustration of Vasari's admiration for Federico Zuccaro's masterpiece. After his Venetian semi-failure due to Tintoretto's intractable competition, Federico needed to assert his talent. Although he was commissioned by his brother Taddeo Zuccaro, he distinguished himself here by his strictly symmetrical layout and phenomenal number of figures. The church was unfortunately destroyed in 1626, but we know its decoration from Cort's engraving. The drawing in the Louvre corresponds to the engraving and must have served as a model for Cort. Our sheet is freer and, in our opinion, should be considered a first draft. According to Roseline Bacou, author of the "Collections of Louis XIV" catalog, it is not certain that the engraving corresponds exactly to the fresco, and the Louvre drawing could be an adaptation for the engraving. In 1566, Federico returned from a three-year stay in Venice and Florence. Federico's source of inspiration can be seen in a huge assembly for a "Coronation of the Virgin", a project for the main wall of the Great Council Chamber in the ducal palace in Venice, of which two drawings are known, one in the Louvre and the other in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (see C.Acidini Luchinat, opus quoted above, fig 26 and 27, p.239). We would like to thank Marco Simone Bolzoni for recognizing the authenticity of this major drawing.