Francesco Zugno

The sheet belongs to a group of four known drawings by Francesco Zugno that depict episodes from the life of Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini (1680-1755).[1] In some cases, the drawings copy grisaille roundels by Bartolomeo Scotti, frescoed in the Biblioteca Queriniana, Brescia, between 1752 and 1753.[2] Zugno's drawings were, in turn, reproduced in etchings by Francesco Zucchi (1692-1764) to illustrate the 'Commentarii historici de rebus pertinentibus ad Angelum Mariam S. R. E. Cardinalem Quirinum', published in 1754.[3] The drawings can thus be dated ca. 1753.
Our drawing was reproduced as plate XV in the 'Commentarii historici', at the bottom of which there is a Latin inscription explaining the scene. As it details, Querini was occupied in 1716-17 with the publication of his dissertation on the history of Benedictine monasticism in Italy when his work was interrupted by a new mandate from Pope Clement XI, who assigned him to a commission to revise Greek liturgical books. The accompanying image shows the Pontiff handing down the appointment to the kneeling Querini.
The Morgan drawing fits within a broader group of finished compositional drawings of homogenous style, focused on legibility and featuring short, controlled strokes with black chalk.[4] Several of these sheets, including ours, feature the same eighteenth-century inscription crediting Zugno as the draftsman ("Zugno dis."), some of which were once kept together in an album broken up and dispersed in the 1960s. Many of these drawings conform to shared formats and sizes, which, along with their relatively uniform style and level of finish, suggests Zugno may have likewise intended them to be reproduced in prints. The drawings' style is closely related to a group of black-chalk drawings by Zugno's teacher, Giambattista Tiepolo, which were engraved, again by Francesco Zucchi, to illustrate books for which Zugno also contributed designs.[5]
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[1] Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 64.38.5 and 1991.345.2; Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, inv. K.58.296.
[2] See Bean and Griswold 1990, 274, under no. 276 (the date of publication is there incorrectly given as 1764); L'Occaso 2013, 138-40. For the frescoes, see Valerio Terraroli, in Florence 2000, 57-65.
[3] For the etchings, see Brescia 1980.
[4] See, for instance, British Museum, London, inv. 2000,0929.7; Courtauld Gallery, London, inv. D.1964.WF.4733; Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 64.38.4 and 1991.345.1; Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, inv. D001332; Musei Civici del Castello Sforzesco, Milan, inv. A 2026-2030; Museo Correr, Venice, inv. 1300, and further examples recently on the art market).
[5] See Ton, in New York 2019, 83-104.