Federico Zuccari

Federico Zuccaro, also known as Federico Zuccari and Federigo Zucchero ( 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. He was an important representative of late Mannerism in Italian art.

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.

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 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. 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. Only the preparatory drawings for the two portraits are preserved. The drawings are inscribed with the date “1575” and “in london magio 1575.” Upon learning that the Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici wished to commission him with the completion of the 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. 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.

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.

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.

Art writer Zuccaro also published books on art theory and art history.