Giorgio Vasari Arezzo 1511 - 1574 Florence

Florian Härb has kindly confirmed the attribution of this elaborate and finished drawing and suggested a late dating, in the 1560s or early 1570s.  The information in the following note is derived from his discussion of this present drawing in his forthcoming publication on Vasari's drawings.

Despite Vasari's prolific activity as an architect, relatively few of his architectural studies have survived.  It has not been possible to connect this drawing with a specific commission and probably the elaborate project was never executed.  There are no references to it in Vasari's Ricordanze or in his correspondence.  It appears to be a design for a decoration comprising both fresco and stucco work for the renovation of a space above and around the apse and the two side chapels of a Gothic church.  During the 1560s Vasari was involved in a number of such renovations, including those in the Florentine churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce.  In the centre above the arch the representation of the sacrifice of Isaac is flanked by garlands and a prophet and a sybil, possibly all to be executed in fresco.  Above the flanking arcades of the side chapels are figures of Moses and Aaron on pedestals possibly to be executed in stucco like the two other saints which appear in niches above the doors flanking the central arch.  A comparable project, never executed, based on the Old Testament and including scenes with Moses and Aaron can be found in a design for the completion of the Cappella Paolina of 1573 (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett inv. no. KdZ 16430), but the apse of that chapel is not flanked by side chapels, thus ruling out any direct connection with the present drawing.