* Jacopo Zucchi Florence circa 1540 - 1596 Rome

Painted for Ferdinando de' Medici in 1575-6, probably as a sportello for his writing-desk, described as being in the Cardinal's bedroom in the Villa Medici, Rome, as early as 1598 and still in 1680;
Medici collections, Florence, in the First Room of Flemish Paintings in the Uffizi from 1782 to 1796, when it was moved back to the Guardaroba on November 19 of that year;
Boccella family, Lucca, by 1845, according to an engraving of that year (as Taddeo Zuccaro);
Art market, Dresden, 1913;
Prof. Dr. Hans Lorenz, Vienna;
By whom sold, Vienna, Dorotheum, June 3-5,1935, lot 177 (as Jacopo Zucchi);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, February 16, 1983, lot 87 (as Follower of Jacopo Zucchi).

L. Lanzi, "La real galleria di Firenze", in Giornale dei letterati, vol. XLVII, 1782, p. 133;
F. Zacchiroli, Description de la Galerie Royale de Florence, Florence 1783, p. 73, ed. 1790, p. 186, ed. 1792, p. 179 (as The Birth of Minerva); 
G. Rosini, Storia della pittura italiana, Pisa 1845, reproduced (in engraved form) plate CXVI (as Taddeo Zuccaro);
H. Voss, “Jacopo Zucchi. Ein vergessener Meister der Florentinisch-römischen Spätrenaissance”, in Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, vol. XXIV, 1913, p. 160, reproduced fig. 18;
E. Pillsbury, "The cabinet paintings of Jacopo Zucchi: their meaning and function", in Monuments et Mémoirs. Fondation Eugène Piot, vol. LXIII, Paris 1980, pp. 189-96, 223-4, reproduced p. 191, fig. 1

This painting appears to be the first recorded cabinet picture which has been identified as having been painted by Jacopo Zucchi for Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici in Rome. Zucchi, who was a pupil of Giorgio Vasari in Florence, specialised in painting small-scale works of an allegorical or mythological nature described in contemporary sources as “quadretti”. These were commissioned by patrons either for their own collections, or to present them as gifts to their friends: Zucchi’s first recorded quadretto, a small-scale copy after Raphael’s Transfiguration in the Musei Vaticani, Rome, was apparently sent as a gift by Ferdinando de’ Medici to the Marchesa Santacroce in 1577. Not all of these quadretti were produced as small independent easel paintings, however, and documents suggest that a large number of them were in fact produced to decorate the doors (sportelli) of a writing-desk or cabinet (known as a studiolo). This work is one such example and documents record that it formed part of a studiolo decorated (the painted elements only) by Zucchi for Ferdinando de’ Medici.

From circa 1572 Zucchi was a paid member of Ferdinando’s household in Rome and the Cardinal’s desire for cabinet pictures was met with enthusiasm by Zucchi, who specialised in painting exactly this type of picture. This painting, which has variously been identified as The Assembly of the Olympian Gods and The Birth of Minerva, is recorded as having been painted in 1575-6 as part of a set of nine coppers intended for a cabinet or writing-desk (studiolo). Probably completed by the spring of 1576, Zucchi received nine copper plates on February 16 1575: “Rame Nuovo… in 9 piastre che 2 grande e 7 mezzane e piccole consegnate Am. Iacopo Zucchi pittore per dipignervj sopra per lo studiuolo di S.S.I. [i.e. Ferdinando de’ Medici]” (see Pillsbury, under Literature, p. 189, and p. 223, Document 5). In a document of December 19 of that year the walnut cabinet, known thereafter as the Studiolo di noce, is described and this panel is recorded in the centre as “il Collegio dellj dej” (Assembly of the Gods) (op. cit., p. 223, Document 8). The desk, which must have been an extraordinary display of craftsmanship of the highest order, had other panels depicted the Three Graces and Apollo and Mercury, statuettes of Jupiter and allegorical figures of Day and Night, nineteen bronzes of the nine Muses and Gods, together with a finely-carved walnut structure and gilt bronze detailing throughout (for a more detailed description see Pillsbury, ibid., pp. 189-90, 223-4).

The present copper is the only surviving piece which can be plausibly linked to the Studiolo di noce. Other small-scale paintings of similar style and execution have been eliminated for pictorial or iconographical reasons: The Age of Silver and The Age of Gold (Uffizi, Florence) are on panel not copper, as is the Three Graces formerly in Vienna, and the Fishing for Coral (Galleria Borghese, Rome), despite being on copper and a painting of this subject being described by Baglione as having formed part of a studiolo at Villa Medici, does not seem to be iconographically consistent with the rest of the mythological scenes described in the documents and it is also notably larger than the present work (55 by 45 cm.; ibid., figs. 5,6, and 14). The cabinet is recorded in the Cardinal’s bedroom at the Villa Medici in Rome in an inventory of June 22, 1598, and it was still there in 1680 (ibid., p. 224, Documents 11 and 12). The studiolo was dismembered by the late 18th Century for the painting is described as hanging in the First Room of Flemish Paintings in the Uffizi from 1782 (see Lanzi under Literature) until 1796, when it was returned to the Guardaroba, according to a handwritten note in the 1784 manuscript inventory (Pillsbury, op. cit., p. 193, footnote 21). In that inventory the picture is described, leaving no doubt as to its identity: “Uno sul rame dipintovi da Federigo Zuccheri la Nascita di Minerva della testa di Giove alla presenza d’altre Deità. Alto soldi 11 largo soldi 7”; the fact that it was attributed to Zuccaro is not surprising given that many of Zucchi’s pictures in the Uffizi were erroneously ascribed to Zuccaro right through until the early 20th Century.

The painting can be dated on stylistic grounds to the mid-1570s and whilst the iconography is quite straightforward, the overall subject has been variously identified as The Assembly of the Gods or The Birth of Minerva, in both old sources and in the more recent bibliography. Upper center sits Jupiter, King of the gods, from whose head Minerva has just been born. To the left and right of him are Neptune, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury and Diana (or Luna) who holds up the moon. The bearded figure lower right, larger in scale and apparently holding the whole group on his shoulders, is probably Atlas and in the lower left corner Vesta, goddess of Mother Nature, is shown guarded by a corbante and sitting above Pluto, god of the Underworld. In the center are Neptune and Juno, with a peacock at her feet, and upper left seated on a cloud are Ceres and Flora with two satyrs (possibly representing the Four Seasons?). The complex layering of figures results in a crowded design, rich of narrative detail, and Zucchi seems to have favoured this kind of design for his small-scale pictures: compare, for example, his Hercules Musagele and the Olympian Gods in the Uffizi, Florence, which was painted shorly afterwards in 1577 (oil on copper, 50 by 39 cm.; ibid., reproduced fig. 4).