Giorgio Vasari

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Giorgio Vasari
1511-1574
Design for the Ceiling of the Sala di Lorenzo Il Magnifico, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
ca. 1556
Pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk; center panel squared in black chalk; section with figure of Buon Giuditio has been inserted from the back on a separate piece of paper. Adhered to old paperboard mount, 17 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches (444 x 370mm).
15 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches (393 x 362 mm)
Gift of George H. Fitch.
1967.25
Inscription: 

Variously inscribed by the artist, in pen and brown ink: below the center panel, "PRESENTE DEL SOLDANO E DALTRI PRINCIPI"; the frames of the blank portrait medaillons, reading clockwise, "(1) IULIANUS MED DUX NEMORS (2) PETRUS MEDICIS (3) IOANNES CARDINALIS DE MEDICIS (4) IULIANUS MED PETRI [FILII(?]"; the paired virtues "(1) AUDACIA and BUONEVENTO (2) BUON GIUDITIO and CLE[M]EN[Z]A (3) PIETA and FEDE (4) FAMA and VIRTU"; inscribed at right, below the center panel, in pen and brown ink: "Geo: Vasari"; on mount, in upper right corner, in blue colored pencil, "16 (encircled)"; in graphite, "1399-1421. b 1511 d. 1574 Giorgio Vasari".

Provenance: 
E. Guntrip's Shop, Book & Printseller, Tonbridge, Kent; from whom purchased in 1929 by George Hopper Fitch (1909-2004; Lugt 1421), New York and San Francisco, by whom presented.
Associated names: 

Fitch, George Hopper, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 98.
Selected references: Stampfle 1968, 266-71; Pillsbury 1969, 79; Notre Dame and Binghamton 1970, no. D39; Monbeig Goguel 1972, 158; New York 1974, pl. 6; Boase 1979, 306; Allegri and Cecchi 1980, 141; Arezzo 1981-82, under no. V. 44; New York 1981, no. 24; Joost-Gaugier 1987, 91-93; Härb 1994, no. 229; New Haven 1994, no. 35; Henneberg 1996, under no. 40; Fairbairn 1998, 2:519; Florence 2002, under no. 214; New York 2006, no. 16; Arezzo 2011, under no. 17; Härb 2015, no. 257; Frankfurt 2016, under no. 121; Scorza 2017, 369-70.
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 174.
Adams, Frederick B., Jr., ed. Fifteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1967 & 1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 94.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 16, p. 38-39.

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