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Tad<strong>de</strong>o Zuccaro<br />
Sant’Angelo in Vado 1529 – Rome 1566<br />
7<br />
Groupe <strong>de</strong> six femmes à moitié nues (recto) ; Étu<strong>de</strong>s diverses, d<strong>on</strong>t une femme (verso)<br />
Plume et encre brune, lavis brun <str<strong>on</strong>g>sur</str<strong>on</strong>g> traces <strong>de</strong> pierre noire. Filigrane étoile dans un cercle (Briquet 6086).<br />
Inscrit Ver<strong>on</strong>ese au cray<strong>on</strong>.<br />
203 x 170 mm (8 x 6 11 /16 in.)<br />
Cette fascinante série d’étu<strong>de</strong>s, <strong>de</strong>ssinées à la plume<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>sur</str<strong>on</strong>g> les <strong>de</strong>ux côtés <strong>de</strong> la feuille et partiellement ombrées<br />
au lavis brun, révèle la manière <strong>de</strong> Tad<strong>de</strong>o<br />
Zuccaro dans les années <strong>de</strong> sa première maturité<br />
artistique. Le style du <strong>de</strong>ssin est en effet typique<br />
du graphisme <strong>de</strong> Tad<strong>de</strong>o vers le milieu <strong>de</strong>s années<br />
1550, au moment où l’artiste, après avoir terminé<br />
s<strong>on</strong> apprentissage artistique romain et avoir séjourné<br />
quelque temps à la cour ducale <strong>de</strong> Guidobaldo<br />
<strong>de</strong>lla Rovere (1514 – 1574) à Urbino, s’impose <str<strong>on</strong>g>sur</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
la scène artistique capitoline comme le plus talentueux<br />
<strong>de</strong> ses c<strong>on</strong>temporains.<br />
Dans sa biographie c<strong>on</strong>sacrée à Tad<strong>de</strong>o dans la sec<strong>on</strong><strong>de</strong><br />
éditi<strong>on</strong> <strong>de</strong>s Vies (1568), Giorgio Vasari rapporte<br />
que l’artiste eut l’occasi<strong>on</strong> <strong>de</strong> visiter Vér<strong>on</strong>e<br />
durant s<strong>on</strong> séjour à Urbino où il se trouvait dans<br />
la suite du duc Guidobaldo, alors gouverneur <strong>de</strong>s<br />
forces armées <strong>de</strong> la Sérénissime 1 . Là, Zuccaro dut<br />
approf<strong>on</strong>dir sa c<strong>on</strong>naissance <strong>de</strong> l’art local qui l’impressi<strong>on</strong>na<br />
durablement, comme le dém<strong>on</strong>tre sa<br />
producti<strong>on</strong> après s<strong>on</strong> séjour dans le nord <strong>de</strong> l’Italie<br />
2 . C’est le cas <strong>de</strong> cette feuille qui reflète clairement<br />
les suggesti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>de</strong> la peinture vénitienne. S<strong>on</strong><br />
sujet en particulier, un groupe <strong>de</strong> femmes à moitié<br />
nues <strong>de</strong>ssinées seules ou par groupe <strong>de</strong> <strong>de</strong>ux,<br />
mais également le traitement <strong>de</strong>s figures aux poses<br />
gracieuses et aux coiffures sophistiquées révèlent<br />
la c<strong>on</strong>naissance directe et l’immersi<strong>on</strong> du peintre<br />
dans l’élégance <strong>de</strong>s thèmes profanes et teintés<br />
d’érotisme alors en vogue à Venise dans la moitié<br />
du xvi e siècle. Il n’est d<strong>on</strong>c pas <str<strong>on</strong>g>sur</str<strong>on</strong>g>prenant que la<br />
feuille ait, pendant un certain temps, été prise pour<br />
une œuvre <strong>de</strong> Vér<strong>on</strong>èse. Des caractéristiques formelles<br />
et stylistiques semblables à celles <strong>de</strong> notre<br />
page d’étu<strong>de</strong> s’observent dans d’autres travaux <strong>de</strong><br />
Zuccaro datables autour <strong>de</strong> la moitié <strong>de</strong>s années<br />
1550, parmi lesquelles La Naissance <strong>de</strong> la Vierge <strong>de</strong><br />
l’Albertina <strong>de</strong> Vienne, curieusement elle aussi attribuée<br />
à Vér<strong>on</strong>èse (Fig. 1) 3 .<br />
La liste <strong>de</strong>s comparatifs pourrait encore comprendre<br />
plusieurs autres feuilles <strong>de</strong> notre artiste, parmi lesquelles<br />
Deux femmes et un enfant, (Vienne, Alber-<br />
This fascinating series of studies, drawn in pen<br />
<strong>on</strong> both si<strong>de</strong>s of the sheet and partially sha<strong>de</strong>d in<br />
brown wash, reveal the manner of Tad<strong>de</strong>o Zuccaro<br />
in the years of his first artistic maturity. In<strong>de</strong>ed, the<br />
style of drawing is typical of Tad<strong>de</strong>o’s technique of<br />
the mid-1550s, when the painter, having completed<br />
his artistic apprenticeship in Rome and having also<br />
spent some time at the court of the Duke of Urbino,<br />
Guidobaldo <strong>de</strong>lla Rovere (1514-1574), stood out<br />
<strong>on</strong> the Capitoline art scene as the most gifted of his<br />
c<strong>on</strong>temporaries.<br />
As recor<strong>de</strong>d by Giorgio Vasari in his biography<br />
<strong>de</strong>voted to Tad<strong>de</strong>o in the sec<strong>on</strong>d editi<strong>on</strong> of the Lives<br />
of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1568),<br />
whilst in Urbino in the service of Duke Guidobaldo<br />
II, then Governor of the Italian military regiment of<br />
the Serenissima, the artist had the opportunity to visit<br />
Ver<strong>on</strong>a 1 . There, Zuccaro was able to intensify his<br />
knowledge of the local art and to be fascinated by it,<br />
as is clearly evi<strong>de</strong>nced by his producti<strong>on</strong> after his stay<br />
in Northern Italy 2 . In the present sheet, the influence<br />
of Venetian painting emerges primarily in the subject<br />
matter, comprising a number of semi-naked women<br />
<strong>de</strong>picted individually and in groups of two, but also<br />
in the treatment of the figures, ren<strong>de</strong>red with graceful,<br />
restrained poses and elaborate hairstyles drawn with<br />
rapid loops and curls, revealing the artist’s first-hand<br />
knowledge and assimilati<strong>on</strong> of the sophisticated<br />
secular themed paintings with subtly veiled erotic<br />
un<strong>de</strong>rt<strong>on</strong>es then in vogue in Venice around the mid<br />
16 th Century. It is therefore not <str<strong>on</strong>g>sur</str<strong>on</strong>g>prising that this<br />
drawing was, for some time, c<strong>on</strong>si<strong>de</strong>red to be the<br />
work of Ver<strong>on</strong>ese - as suggested by two annotati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
<strong>on</strong> the fr<strong>on</strong>t and back of the sheet. Formal and stylistic<br />
characteristics like those in the present sheet can also<br />
be found in other works by Zuccaro dating to around<br />
the mid 1550’s such as The Birth of the Virgin now<br />
in the Albertina Museum, Vienna, and curiously also<br />
attributed to Ver<strong>on</strong>ese (Fig. 1) 3 .<br />
The list of comparis<strong>on</strong>s to the present sheet can<br />
however be exten<strong>de</strong>d to other works by the artist,<br />
such as the drawings, Two Women and a Child, in<br />
40