XI - Paintings and Drawings - Marty de Cambiaire

Cardinal Farnese very much admired these frescoes and thus
asked Perino del Vaga to use their composition for the designs
of the plaques.
commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and executed
by Giovanni Desiderio Bernardi (1496 – 1553). The first
series of plaques for the decoration of two silver chandeliers
was executed in 1539, and Giorgio Vasari listed their
subjects in the short passage that dedicated to Bernardi: “the
first shows the Centurion entreating the Saviour to heal his
son, in the second is the Pool of Bethesda, in the third the
Transfiguration of Mount Tabor, the fourth has the Miracle
of the Five Loaves and Two Fishes, the fifth presents Our
Saviour expelling the Traders from the Temple; and in the
sixth, which is the last, is the Resurrection of Lazarus; all
of the most remarkable beauty.” 1 The second series was
executed in 1547 representing other episodes from the life
of Christ, also described by Vasari: “the Birth of Christ, the
Prayer of Our Saviour in the Garden, his seizure by the
Jews, his appearance before Anna, Herod and Pilate, his
Scourging, and the being Crowded with Thorns, the Carrying
of the Cross, the Crucifixion, and finally, the glorious
Resurrection.” The two commissions thus amounted to the
total of sixteen crystals that were later dispersed.
Twelve of these crystal tondi seem to have been removed
from the chandeliers in order to be mounted on a pair of
candlesticks that were presented to the Vatican Basilica as a
gift by Cardinal Farnese in 1581, now in the Treasury of Saint
Peter’s. 2 Two more tondi were mounted on a silver casket today
in the Copenhagen Museum. The candlesticks and the casket
were each fitted with two plaques from different series than
those of 1539 and 1547. Another of the sixteenth plaques, the
Birth of Christ, has been located in Rushford collection. Only
the plaque of the Multiplication of the Loves, for which the
present drawing is preparatory, has not been found.
Six subjects of the first series also correspond to the subjects
that Perino del Vaga treated in the frescoes he executed for
the Capella Massimi (today destroyed) in Trinità dei Monti.
A fragment of one of them, the Resurrection of Lazarus, is in
Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Vasari related that
Several drawings preparing the crystal plaques have been
located: The Resurrection of Lazarus in the Louvre 3 , The
Multiplication of the Loaves (fig. 1) and The Pool of Bethesda
(fig. 2) in the Pierpont Morgan Library 4 , Christ driving the
Traders from the Temple (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm),
and Healing of Centurion’s Son (Prague National Gallery). A
careful study of these drawings reveals two different graphic
techniques. One uses simple strokes, which may correspond
to the initial phase of the project; this is the case of the present
drawing, of the one in Prague and in Stockholm, as well as
of The Pool of Bethseda in the Pierpont Morgan Library. The
other more finished technique with its use of brown ink wash
and white gouache highlights was probably used for the final
phase. Therefore, The Multiplication of the Loaves in the
Pierpont Morgan Library may correspond to a later phase in
the project. However, the opposite order seems rather logical
as well: the more finished drawing could have been used as
presentation to the patron, whereas the simple line drawing
seems to correspond better to a design the artist would give
to the engraver since it only has the essential part of the
drawing. A coincidence is intriguing: among line drawings,
the present, Stockholm and Prague sheets bear the numbers
that correspond to Vasari’s enumeration
1 Giorgio Vasari, Delle vite de pittori, scultori e architetti,
English translation by Mrs. Jonathan Foster, vol. III, part III, p.
471 in the life of Valerio Vicentino.
2 E. Kris, Di alcune opere ignote di G. dei B. nel Tesoro di S.
Pietro, in Dedalo, IX (1928-29), p. 97 on.
3 RF 539.
4 It. 16.34 I, 21 and s It. 16.34 IV, 47 respectively.
15 Simone Peterzano
Bergamo 1535 – Milan 1599
Study for a Head
Black and white chalk on grey-blue paper
300 x 192 mm (11 ¾ x 7 ½ in)
Although Simone Peterzano is famous as the first master
of Caravaggio, his own oeuvre remains much less known
in spite of growing bibliographic references. In his work
Idea del Tempio della pittura, his contemporary art theorist
Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo placed him on the same level as
Tintoretto, Pordenone, the Bassano and Barocci. 1 In 1719,
Pellegrino Orlandi, with lesser praise, thus described him
in his Abecedario Pittorico: “Simone Peterzano Veneziano
scolaro di Tizinao fu vago, leggiadro et espressivo nelle opere
sue, come nell’ Assunta di Maria Vergine dipinta in Milano
nella Chiesa di Brera, e in altri luoghi”. 2
The controversy about the origins of the painter has now
been solved: Gianmaria Pietrò demonstrated that Peterzano’s
father was a man from Bergamo who had settled in Venice
since 1541, therefore, Simone grew up in Venice. 3 This
explains why he sometimes affirmed his Bergamask origins
141