* Jacopo Zucchi Florence circa 1540 - 1596 Rome

Anonymous sale, London, Phillips, April 26, 1988, lot 33 (as Circle of Jacopo Zucchi);
There purchased by the present collector.

This allegorical painting on copper may once have formed part of a larger decorative scheme and was perhaps originally placed within a piece of furniture, such as a cabinet or writing-desk called a studiolo (see, for example, the Assembly of the Gods by Zucchi in this sale). The fact that this painting appears sketchy and that it does not have the highly finished surface of other small-scale paintings by Zucchi might suggest that it is unfinished. Since it is painted on a copper support, an unusual medium for sketches, it is unlikely to be a bozzetto for another picture though it is conceivable that it was a presentation picture (or modello) for a patron commissioning the work, possibly on a larger scale.

The subject of the copper is the Four Elements: Water (in the form of a river-god and abundance of coral lower left), Earth (in the form of Cybele who is seated lower center), Fire (shown by Vulcan in his forge lower right) and Air (with Juno in the centre, surrounded by nymphs, and a multitude of birds upper left). It may seem unusual that the artist has given so much precedence to Air but this can be explained by the fact that it was the element most sacred to Juno in antiquity; and this further explains her prominent position in the centre of the composition.