ZUCCHI, TADDEO and FEDERICO – Painters. TADDEO, b. at S. Angelo in Vado near Urbino on 1 Sept. 1529, d. at Rome on 1 Sept. 1566.
His first masters were his father and Pompeo da Fano. From 1543 he worked in Rome under Francesco da Sant’Angelo. His most famous work is the decoration of the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, which derives from the decorative schemes of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, where T. worked with Francesco Salviati. At Caprarola, outstanding among the others is the composition depicting the Council of Trent, which has very clear references to Raphael’s Disputa del Sacramento. Indeed, Raphaelism dominates the artist’s work in this first period.
Recent criticism, however, gives greater emphasis to the decoration of the Villa of Pope Julius in Rome for the keen sense of landscape and colour displayed by the painter. In the last years of his life T. painted in the Vatican Logge and later in the Sala Regia scenes with the Donation of Charlemagne and the Battle of Tunis. It is the period in which his manner becomes more visibly akin to Michelangelo, as is clearly shown also by the panel with the Dead Christ, supported by five angels, in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Taddeo painted prolifically and in his own day enjoyed a good reputation for the ease and fluency with which he reproduced both Raphaelite rhythms and the movement of Michelangelesque figures and even the colourism of the Venetians. His painting, however, remained essentially decorative and bound to a certain taste in blending the various trends that was said to be in the “zuccaresque” manner.
Even more than he did, his brother FEDERICO painted; b. at Sant’Angelo in Vado between 1542 and 1543, d. at Ancona in 1609. He began painting in Rome under his brother. He soon gained fame and began to work independently in the house of Tizio da Spoleto at S. Eustachio. After receiving commissions in the Vatican for the Sala Regia, he was entrusted with completing the Last Judgment begun by Vasari in the dome of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, an undertaking he brought to completion in 1579. In Florence, the Uffizi Gallery holds a rich collection of his drawings. He also painted in Venice in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio the Barbarossa.
At the feet of Alexander III, considered his best work. He also went abroad, to Holland, England, France and Spain, where he received a commission for the Escurial. On returning to Rome, he completed the work on the Pauline Chapel, but criticism, even in his own day, began to turn against him. Around 1593 he devoted himself to reorganizing the Accademia di San Luca, which he installed in his house at Trinità dei Monti, already adorned by him with frescoes. He was the first princeps of the Academy.
Then, increasingly embittered, he left Rome; at Ancona he wrote: L’idea dei pittori, scultori ed architetti, La Dimora in Roma and Il passaggio per l’Italia. Federico’s paintings, which are even more closely tied to academic forms than those of his brother, nonetheless differ from them in a broader eclecticism, a richer chromaticism and above all a marked leaning towards Correggism.