Editing Federico Zuccari

{{Short description|Italian painter}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox artist
| image            = Fede Galizia - Portrait of Federico Zuccaro.jpg
| alt              = 
| caption          = ''Portrait of Federico Zuccaro'' by [[Fede Galizia]], 1604
| birth_date       = {{circa|1540/1541}}
| birth_place      = [[Sant'Angelo in Vado]], Italy
| death_date       = {{death date|1609|7|20}} or {{death date|1609|8|6}} (sources vary) (aged {{age range|from1=1541|from2=1540|to=1609}})
| death_place      = [[Ancona]], Italy
| field            = {{flatlist|
*Painting
*architecture
}}
| movement         = {{flatlist|
*[[Renaissance]]
*[[Mannerism]]
}}
| patrons          = 
| awards           = 
}}

'''Federico Zuccaro''', also known as '''Federico Zuccari''' and '''Federigo Zucchero''' ({{circa|1540/1541}}{{snd}} July/August 1609), was an Italian painter, draughtsman, architect and writer. He worked in various cities in [[Italy]], as well as in other countries such as [[Spain]], France, the [[Spanish Netherlands]] and England.<ref name=itbio>{{harnvb|Spagnolo|2020}}.</ref> He was an important representative of late [[Mannerism]] in Italian art.<ref name=dante>{{harnvb|Donati Barcellona|1970}}.</ref>

==Life and work==
Zuccaro was born in [[Sant'Angelo in Vado]], near [[Urbino]] ([[Marche]]), then in the [[Duchy of Urbino]]. His parents were the painter Ottaviano de Zucharellis, who changed his surname to Zuccaro in 1569, and Antonia Neri. He was the third child of eight. His siblings were called [[Taddeo Zuccari|Taddeo]], Bartolomea, Federico, Iacopo, Lucio, Maurizio, Aloysio and Marco Antonio.<ref name=itbio/>

In 1550, when he was barely 11 years old, his parents brought him to Rome to study law but Federico preferred a career in art. He trained and worked in the workshop of his elder brother Taddeo who had become a successful painter in Rome. He became quickly integrated into the team of his brother and assisted with the workshop's commissions. Around 1560 he was able to join a group of artists who worked for pope [[Pius IV]] at the Vatican where he made decorations for the [[Casina Pio IV|Casino]] in the garden and the cycle with the ''History of Moses'' at the [[Cortile del Belvedere|Belvedere]] which were commenced in 1560. He helped his brother on the fresco decorations at the [[Villa Farnese|Villa Farnese at Caprarola]]. 
[[File:Ceiling Painted Dome Cupola Angels Fighting Demons in Vatican Museums.png|thumb|left|269px|''Angels Fighting Demons'', Vatican, collaboration with Vasari]]
He left his work on this commission to travel to [[Venice]] to work for a private Venetian patron, [[Giovanni Grimani]], the patriarch of [[Aquileia]]. He made decorations for the [[Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa]] in Venice and painted frescoes and the altarpiece of the patriarch's chapel in [[San Francesco della Vigna]]. During this period in Venice, he met the prominent architect [[Andrea Palladio|Palladio]] and the Florentine writer [[Anton Francesco Doni]]. They were active in various literary and artistic academies to which they introduced him. He collaborated with Palladio on the design of sets for the theater company [[Compagnie della Calza|Compagnia della Calza degli Accesi]] and in March 1565 they visited together [[Cividale del Friuli]]. He tried unsuccessfully to obtain the commissions for the decoration of the [[Scuola di San Rocco]] and the wall with the Paradise fresco in the [[Doge's Palace]]. He used his period in Venice to copy works of other masters of the 15th and 16th centuries, including some pages of the precious [[Grimani Breviary]], a manuscript illumination produced by Flemish artists between 1515 and 1520.<ref name=repu>[https://www.repubblica.it/repubblicarts/zuccari1/testo.html Cristina Acidini Luchinat, ''The life of the Zuccari brothers''] at la Repubblica of the Arts</ref>
[[Image:Federico Zuccaro - Gate of Virtue.jpg|thumb|210px|''The Gate of Virtue'']]

In 1565, Zuccaro left Venice and traveled to Florence where he had been introduced to some important people by his Florentine friends in Venice. He arrived not long before the elaborate wedding of the Grand Duke of Tuscany [[Francesco I de' Medici]] with [[Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany|Joanna of Austria]] in December 1565. [[Giorgio Vasari]], who was in charge of the organisation of the artistic and decorative preparations for the festive occasion, entrusted him with the painting of some stories in [[grisaille]]. These served as decorations of the fake arch and the great drop scene that closed off one of the sides of the Sala dei Cinquecento in the [[Palazzo Vecchio]], where the wedding was to take place. A preparatory sketch in colour depicting hunting scenes near Florence is the only item that survives in relation to his contribution.<ref name=repu/>

After returning to Rome in 1566, he found artistic success with his ''Annunciation'' (lost) in the church of the Jesuits in Piazza del Collegio Romano and frescoes in the [[Villa d'Este]] at Tivoli. His brother Taddeo died suddenly, aged 37, on 2 September 1566. He took over all the ongoing commissions of his brother. This kept him busy for many years. He worked extensively on the fresco decorations at the [[Villa Farnese|Villa Farnese at Caprarola]].<ref name=repu/> In summer 1569, a conflict over payments arose between Zuccaro and Cardinal Farnese. As a result, Federico was sent away from Caprarola where he was replaced by [[Jacopo Bertoia]] of Parma. Upset by this event, Federico painted and then made copies of a satirical composition which was inspired by the lost painting of the ancient Greek painter [[Apelles]] called the ''Calumny of Apelles'' as described by the ancient author [[Lucian]]. In the painting Apelles had expressed his unhappiness with his ignorant patron [[King Midas]]. In his painting, Zuccaro depicts King Midas with donkey ears while the painter hero is led away under the protection of the Roman god [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]].<ref name=cal>[https://www.rct.uk/collection/405695/calumny Federico Zuccaro (c. 1542-1609), ''Calumny''] at the Royal Collection </ref> In this painting Zuccaro for the first time expressed his feeling of being misunderstood by an ignorant patron that would accompany him in the remainder of his career. In 1569, with Taddeo's team of assistants dispersed, Federico began to work mostly for the free market.<ref name=repu/>
[[File:Federico Zuccaro (c. 1542-1609) - Calumny - RCIN 405695 - Royal Collection.jpg|thumb|left|299px|''Calumny'', c. 1570]]

On 22 June 1573, he set out for Paris after accepting to work in the service of [[Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine]], a member of the powerful [[House of Guise]]. He arrived in Paris on 24 August 1573. He may have seen [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s [[Mona Lisa]] when he visited the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]] near Paris.<ref name=repu/> From Paris he traveled on 14 August 1574 to Antwerp where he arrived six days later. He visited [[Brussels]], where he prepared a series of cartoons for the [[Brussels tapestry|tapestry-weavers]]. On 16 March 1575 he left Antwerp for England, where he stayed until 8 August 1575. In England he received a commission from [[Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester]] to portray himself and [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]].<ref>Goldring, Elizabeth: "The Earl of Leicester's Inventory of Kenilworth Castle, c.1578", ''English Heritage Historical Review'', Vol. 2, 2007, p. 38</ref> Only the preparatory drawings for the two portraits are preserved. The drawings are inscribed with the date “1575” and “in london magio 1575.”<ref name=itbio/> He also painted [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], Sir [[Nicholas Bacon (courtier)|Nicholas Bacon]], Sir [[Francis Walsingham]], [[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham|Lord High Admiral Howard]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Zuccaro |volume=28 |page=1047 |last=Middleton |first=John Henry | authorlink=John Henry Middleton}}</ref> Upon learning that the Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici wished to commission him with the completion of the ''[[The Last Judgement (Vasari and Zuccari)|Last Judgement]]'' in the dome of [[Santa Maria del Fiore]] in Florence, left unfinished by Giorgio Vasari upon his death in 1574, he immediately decided to return to Italy. On his return trip, he stopped over in Antwerp from 18 to 30 August.<ref name=itbio/>
[[File:Federico Zuccaro - Taddeo Rebuffed by Francesco Il Sant'Angelo.jpg|thumb|330px|''Taddeo Zuccaro Rebuffed by Francesco Il Sant'Angelo'']]

In the execution of the ''Last Judgement'' in Florence he only relied in Vasari's general proportional scheme while creating his own original design by changing the manner of representation, technique and style. He painted a portrait of a ''Man with Two Dogs'' in the [[Pitti Palace]] (Florence), and the ''Dead Christ and Angels'' in the [[Galleria Borghese]] (Rome). In 1585, he accepted an offer by [[Philip II of Spain]] to decorate the new [[Escorial]] at a yearly salary of 2,000 crowns. He worked at the palace from January 1586 to end of 1588, when he returned to Rome. His paintings (like those of [[El Greco]] before him) were not in line with the austere artistic preferences of the king and many were painted over or heavily retouched after he left. However the parting was amicable: "We must not blame him, but those who sent him to us", said Philip.<ref>Trevor-Roper, Hugh; ''Princes and Artists, Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts 1517-1633'', Thames & Hudson, London, 1976, p 69</ref> He was succeeded by [[Pellegrino Tibaldi]]. In Rome, he obtained a charter confirmed by [[Pope Sixtus V]] approving the establishment in 1595 of the [[Accademia di San Luca]], of which he was the first president.<ref name="EB1911"/> [[Bartolomeo Carducci]] is said to have studied with him.

In 1603, he spent time in his birthplace Sant'Angelo in Vado, where he completed the Zuccari altarpiece at the monastery of Santa Caterina. He was in Venice, where he perfected the work in the Great Council room at the Doge Palace (signed, dated “1582 / PERFECIT AN. 1603” and bearing his emblem, a lily sugar loaf). He was given a gold necklace and the title of [[cavaliere]] knight as his reward for completing this work.<ref name=itbio/> From Venice he travelled to [[Pavia]] where, together with [[Cesare Nebbia]], he frescoed the hall of the [[Collegio Borromeo]], a work commissioned by Cardinal [[Federico Borromeo]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Visit the College |url=http://www.collegioborromeo.it/it/en/the-college/visit-the-college/ |website=Almo Collegio Borromeo Pavia |publisher=Collegio Borromeo |access-date=23 September 2022 |archive-date=23 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220923153237/http://www.collegioborromeo.it/it/en/the-college/visit-the-college/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Collegio Borromeo - complesso Pavia (PV) |url=https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/architetture/schede/PV240-00311/ |website=Lombardia Beni Culturali |publisher=Regione Lombardia |access-date=23 September 2022}}</ref>

Zuccari travelled from one court to another. The last stages of his journey took him to Emilia and Romagna. Following a brief illness, he died in July or August 1609, in [[Ancona]], in the home of a gentleman with whom he was staying and who arranged for his burial.<ref name=repu/>

==Draughtsman==
[[File:Federico Zuccaro - Harrowing of the Lustful.jpg|thumb|290px|''Harrowing of the Lustful'']]
He was a prolific draughtsman and left a large number of preliminary studies for his paintings. He is the author of one of the most complete illustrations of the [[Divine Comedy|Divina Commedia]] of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] which he created between 1586 and 1588 during his stay in Spain. The set of 88 sheets was kept by the artist throughout his life and were part of his estate at the time of his death.<ref name=dante/> The sheets are now in the collection of the [[Uffizi]] in Florence.<ref name=dant>[https://www.uffizi.it/en/online-exhibitions/dante-istoriato-hell#1 Eike D. Schmidt, Dante Illustrated]. at the Uffizi Galleries</ref>

He created around in 1595 a series of 20 drawings, which illustrate the early life of his older brother Taddeo, starting with the hardships and disappointments during the period of his training in Rome until his first artistic successes at the age of 18. In addition to 16 scenes depicting Taddeo's life, the series includes four drawings of allegorical Virtues flanking the Zuccaro emblem. The set is kept at the [[Getty Center]].<ref name=get>[https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/zuccaro/extra_zuccaro_01.html Federico Zuccaro, ''Twenty Drawings Depicting the Early Life of Taddeo Zuccaro''] at the Getty Center</ref>

==Art writer==
Zuccaro also published books on art theory and art history.<ref name="EB1911"/> In his book ''L'idea de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti'' (1607) he sets out a complex theoretical exposition on the idea of design.<ref name=itbio/>
==Selected fresco projects==
[[File:Federico zuccari, ordinazione di san giacinto, 1600 ca. 01.jpg|thumb|300px|''The ordination of St. Hyacinth'', [[Santa Sabina|Basilica of Saint Sabina]], Rome]]

The fresco projects he worked on include:

* Sala Regia in the [[Apostolic Palace]], Rome
* Decoration of the [[Casina Pio IV]], Rome
* Chapel of St. Hyacinth in the [[Santa Sabina|Basilica of Saint Sabina]], Rome
* Grimani Chapel, [[San Francesco della Vigna]], Venice
*Monumental staircase, [[Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa|Palazzo Grimani]], Venice
* Pucci Chapel in the church of [[Trinità dei Monti]], Rome
* [[San Marcello al Corso]], Rome
* [[Cathedral of Orvieto]] (1570)
* [[Oratorio del Gonfalone, Rome]] (1573)
* ''[[The Last Judgement (Vasari and Zuccari)|The Last Judgement]]'' on the ceiling of the dome of the [[Florence Cathedral]]. Started by [[Giorgio Vasari]] and unfinished at the time of his death, it was completed by Zuccari between 1576 and 1579 with the assistance of [[Bartolomeo Carducci]], [[Domenico Passignano]] and [[Stefano Pieri]].<ref>{{cite web |last= Shulman |first= Ken |title= ART: On the Scaffolds, a Delicate Labor in the Duomo |publisher= New York Times |date= 3 December 1989|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/03/arts/art-on-the-scaffolds-a-delicate-labor-in-the-duomo.html |accessdate= 28 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last= Berti |first= Federico |title= Domenico Cresti, il Passignano,"fra la natione fiorentina e veneziana": Viatico per il periodo giovanile con una inedita Sacra Famiglia |place= Florence |publisher= De Stijl Art Publishing |year= 2013 |page= 18 |url= https://www.antiquariditalia.it/it/scarica-catalogo/c71292b4-769d-42ef-8293-296728f0b9b9 |isbn= 978-88-904451-3-2}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite encyclopedia
 |title= Zuccari, Federico
 |encyclopedia= [[Enciclopedia Dantesca]]
 |year= 1970
 |last= Donati Barcellona
 |first= Maria
 |publisher= Rome
 |location= [[Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana]]
 |url= https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/federico-zuccari_(Enciclopedia-Dantesca)
 |access-date= 17 December 2024
}}
* {{DBI|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/federico-zuccari_(Dizionario-Biografico)|first=Maddalena|last=Spagnolo|title=ZUCCARI, Federico|volume=100}}{{sfn whitelist | CITEREFSpagnolo2020}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |first= Sydney J. |last= Freedberg |year= 1993 |title= Painting in Italy, 1500-1600 |editor= Pelican History of Art |pages= Penguin Books Ltd |no-pp= true}}
*{{cite journal |last= Thompson |first= Wendy |title= Federico Zuccaro's Love Affair with Florence: Two Allegorical Designs |journal= Metropolitan Museum Journal |volume= 43 |pages= 75–97 |publisher= The University of Chicago Press |place= Chicago |year= 2008|url= https://resources.metmuseum.org/resources/metpublications/pdf/Federico_Zuccaros_Love_Affair_with_Florence_The_Metropolitan_Museum_Journal_v_43_2008.pdf}}

==External links==
* {{Commons-inline|Category:Federico Zuccaro|Federico Zuccaro}}
* [http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/zuccaro/ Getty Museum Exhibition Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro: Artist Brothers in Rome]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuccari, Federico}}
[[Category:1540s births]]
[[Category:1609 deaths]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Pesaro and Urbino]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian male painters]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian Mannerist painters]]
[[Category:Artist authors]]
[[Category:Art historians]]
[[Category:Sibling artists]]
[[Category:Italian Mannerist architects]]
[[Category:Catholic painters]]
[[Category:Architects of Roman Catholic churches]]